mislay
Americanverb (used with object)
-
mislays,
present (3rd person singular)
-
mislaid,
past participle, past
-
mislaying
present participle
-
to lose temporarily; misplace.
He mislaid his keys.
-
to lay or place wrongly; arrange or situate improperly.
to mislay linoleum.
verb
-
to lose (something) temporarily, esp by forgetting where it is
-
to lay (something) badly
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
mislaysimple
-
mislayssimple
-
have mislaidperfect
-
has mislaidperfect
-
am mislayingprogressive
-
are mislayingprogressive
-
is mislayingprogressive
-
have been mislayingperfect progressive
-
has been mislayingperfect progressive
Past
-
mislaidsimple
-
had mislaidperfect
-
was mislayingprogressive
-
were mislayingprogressive
-
had been mislayingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of mislay
First recorded in 1350–1400, mislay is from Middle English mysse layen. See mis- 1, lay 1
Explanation
If you mislay something, you lose it temporarily. People who tend to mislay their house keys sometimes hide an extra key under a rock near the front door. If you mislay your cell phone inside, you can ask your brother to call your number. If your grandmother mislays her hearing aid, you'll have to shout and gesture until she finds it again. Mislay implies that you've put the lost object down somewhere, and you'll find it again soon. The word adds the "bad" or "wrong" prefix mis- to lay, from the Old English lecgan, "to place on the ground."
Vocabulary lists containing mislay
Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Prefixes: mis-
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Under a Painted Sky
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
If the clocks on those satellites stray by a millionth of a second, you'll mislay yourself by 200km or 300km.
From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2019
If you’re easily offended or confused, mislay this book and go back to “All the Light We Cannot See.”
From Washington Post ● May 12, 2015
The task isn't simply to avoid panic at the crucial juncture but to be sure not to mislay one's excrement in between times, while the opposing captain jiggles his field and the bowler runs up.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 1, 2013
She would forget names once in a while and would mislay her car keys on occasion.
From New York Times ● Jun. 21, 2010
They all knew what the almanac looked like; their miserably uncomfortable master seemed to mislay it with every full moon.
From "The Unseen Guest" by Maryrose Wood
All the same, who would have thought it could be so much fun to be trapped inside the head of the type of person who so radically mislays herself?
From Time Magazine Archive
I shore don't know how I mislays my se'f-respect to sech a pitch as to go settin' into these yere paltry plays.'
From Wolfville Days by Alfred Henry Lewis
And that boy of mine is such a stupid fellow; he loses or mislays the letters somehow—I can’t understand how.
From Post Haste by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Enviable stoicism that mislays the keepsake of some poor widow, or lames the old curate's cob, the fond companion of many rambles.
From The Daltons, Volume I (of II) Or,Three Roads In Life by Charles James Lever
Othello mislays his handkerchief, and there remains nothing for him but death.
From Modern Painters, Volume IV (of V) by John Ruskin
Most people, though not all, would notice if they mislaid a $100 bill.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026
After they mislaid evidence a number of times, she says, she carried her home computer and a pile of paperwork into the police station.
From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2025
A nation’s stuff, squeezed and zippered and then entrusted to the delicate ballet of air travel, has been mislaid and orphaned this week.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 28, 2022
One letter missed its issue because the Coop office mislaid it and never sent it to the editor.
From Salon ● Apr. 23, 2022
The foot-people bad been early mislaid because they did not understand the notes of the horn.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
Her soaring film career has by now supplied Brown with such an array of other fictional gifts and odd abilities that mislaying her telekinetic powers doesn’t seem quite so bad.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 28, 2021
Losing AirPods would be much more frustrating than mislaying a $15 pair of headphones from the airport.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 22, 2016
In addition to unsettled weather, ominous portents include the groom’s mislaying of the ring, and his first squabble with Dolly, in which he refuses to take her beloved pet turtle on the overseas voyage.
From New York Times ● Dec. 6, 2012
To this day, he admits that something as simple as mislaying a pen in his "monstrous London uber-pad" can trigger a whole new wave of furious self-hatred.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 18, 2010
The theft—or mislaying, as the Department hopes it will prove to be—took place several days ago.
From The Dream Doctor by Arthur B. (Arthur Benjamin) Reeve
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
