Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To feel doubt or distrust about.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To suspect; regard with suspicion.
- To think; have a suspicion or inkling of.
- To entertain doubt; have a suspicion.
- noun Unnecessary or unworthy doubt; irresolution; hesitation.
- noun Suspicion, as of crime or danger.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- verb obsolete To be suspicious of; to have suspicion.
- noun obsolete Suspicion.
- noun obsolete Irresolution; hesitation.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb regional To
doubt the existence or reality of. - verb regional To have suspicions about.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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I misdoubt 'twas the wrath of me that brought the accidents.
Chapter II 2010
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I misdoubt they do anything particularly useful with what they get, but at least the devices are out of my house.
BOOK VIEW CAFE BLOG » Weird and Wonderful: Recyling with FreeGeek.org 2010
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"My own," she said, "though I misdoubt I ever did fit it on my old corpse, what's swoll up with fat these last year and ten."
Enjoyment 2010
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He answered, “I know not, but sore I misdoubt me that soon we shall know thereof overwell.”
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If there be no help for it but thou must slay him, let it be by the hand of another than thyself, so none of the folk may misdoubt of thee.
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“Bring my daughter back to me forthright; for I am uneasy about her, because she hath been so long absent, and I misdoubt me of this.”
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And I misdoubt me my mother is dead of grief for my loss, and this doubt is the stronger for that she knoweth not what is come of me nor whether I am alive or dead.
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And though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to misdoubt her strength.
Areopagitica 2007
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Thereat fell the silence of woe upon the throng; but Arthur ran forward on the priest with drawn sword, and cried out: I misdoubt me that thou art a traitor; speak! or I will slay thee here and now.
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And though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to misdoubt her strength.
Areopagitica 2007
oroboros commented on the word misdoubt
Apprehension of evil; fear; suspicion. OED. This word seems counterintuitive to me. To misdoubt would seem to be a misplaced or imperfect doubt such that it should be a form of trust rather than doubt.
June 19, 2008
asativum commented on the word misdoubt
"Now there came to the ears of Earl Hakon the fame of a man overseas westward who called himself Oli, & whom men held for a King; and he misdoubted from the talk of certain folk that this man must be of the lineage of the Norwegian Kings."
-- Sturluson, Snorri: The Sagas of Olaf Tryggvason and of Harald the Tyrant
(Note: I think the link leads to the same translation I'm quoting from, but I could be wrong.)
September 30, 2008