Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To speak or pronounce incorrectly.
- intransitive verb To speak mistakenly, inappropriately, or rashly.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To speak wrongly or improperly.
- To speak disrespectfully or disparagingly: with of.
- To speak or pronounce wrongly; utter imperfectly.
- To express improperly or imperfectly; speak otherwise than according to one's intention: used reflexively: as, I misspoke myself. [Colloq.] To blame or calumniate.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb To err in speaking.
- transitive verb To utter wrongly.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb intransitive, obsolete To speak insultingly or disrespectfully.
- verb intransitive To fail to
pronounce ,utter , or speak correctly
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb pronounce a word incorrectly
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word misspeak.
Examples
-
[Josh] • "This use of 'misspeak' is of American origin."
-
Part of the reason Obama's having trouble dismissing this as a "misspeak" is because of the construct of his remarks, the underlying condescension, and the fact that he's built a reputation for being a gifted and precise communicator.
-
No, that was a misspeak from a very tired candidate who meant to say 47 out of 50″ and it came out wrong.
Think Progress » Palin says her favorite founding father is ‘all of them.’ 2010
-
I know what you lemming like uneducated lefties are thinking, but he said it twice so he didn't "misspeak".
-
Hillarious Clinton has done it again, ladies and gentleman ... it's hard to believe anything that comes out of her mouth these days – she could "misspeak" at any moment.
-
We were pretty harsh against Hillary for her "misspeak" on Bosnia sniper fire.
RNC hits Obama over Auschwitz claim, Obama camp responds 2008
-
By the end, and after more than a half-dozen repetitions, Blumenthal had come up with the word of the day: "misspeak," a malleable and vague term that could perhaps be described as the act of lying unintentionally — or, in Blumenthal's case, painting it as the fault of someone else who took it out of context.
The Indirect Sort-Of Apology While Blaming Someone Else: Blumenthal Coins New Kind of Mea Culpa 2010
-
How many times can he "misspeak" before it becomes painfully obvious that the man doesn't hane a clue unless he has Joe Leiberman whispering the answers in his ear.
-
And once in a while do some research, because as you obvioulsy are still ignorant of the fact that HRC has a tendancy to "misspeak" and you can't take her work as gospel.
Clinton takes on TV pundits at distillery stop in Kentucky 2008
-
What should be a factor in the Super Delegates 'decision is the job loss' misspeak 'in Valpariso, IN. and the Peter Paul v. Clinton, et al in CA.
Blitzer: Should Clinton's swing state edge be a factor? 2008
quotato commented on the word misspeak
The word "misspeak" has a long and varied history, says John Simpson, chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary.
"It goes back to the Old English period before the Norman Conquest to mean to murmur or grumble.
"But it's got quite a wide sense of meanings, to speak insultingly or improperly or to speak disparagingly or disrespectfully or to speak evil of. Then in the mid to late Middle Ages, it was to pronounce incorrectly."
March 27, 2008