mistest

English

mis- +‎ test

Verb

mistest (third-person singular simple present mistests, present participle mistesting, simple past and past participle mistested)

1. (transitive) To incorrectly test.
   • 1964, Richard A. O'Connell, “Physical Evaluation of Wool Properties”, in Technical Wool Conference: Held May 13-15, 1964, page 129:

     This is because they test at a very small, 0 to 1/8 inch, gage length and can mistest a wool with a tender section or break.

   • 1975, Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?:

     'We could have defrauded you,' Rachael said. 'Nothing forced us to admit you mistested me. And the same for the other nine subjects we've selected.'

   • 2010, Stephen L. Elkin, Karol Edward Soltan, Citizen Competence and Democratic Institutions, page 249:

     Both the NAEP report and the recent Third International Maths and Science Study (TIMSS) examining mathematics proficiency suggest that Americans are not so much undertested as mistested: vast amounts of breadth, but almost no depth, appears to be the norm.

   • 2012, Peter Josyph, Liberty Street: Encounters at Ground Zero, page 50:

     It was no surprise at all when I heard, much later, that as they were abating their own Downtown building, the EPA mistested the rest of Lower Manhattan and misinformed the citizenry about the danger.

2. (transitive, obsolete) To hostilely set challenges for.
   • 1893, John Pendleton Kennedy, Horse Shoe Robinson: A Tale of the Tory Ascendency, page 73:

     Although it mought be somewhat dangerous, just hereabouts, to confess yourself a sodger of King George—let me tell you, that, being against you, I am not the person to mistest you on that head, by spreading the news abroad, or setting a few dozen of whigs upon your scent, which is a thing easily done.

Noun

mistest (countable and uncountable, plural mistests)

1. (countable) An incorrectly applied test.
   • 1925, Association of American Railroads. Communications Section, Proceedings, page 565:

     With this method of using a key and either using the two cords or one cord, it will prevent a mistest of that kind.

   • 1972, R. J. Niccum, Comparison of Polyester, Film-yarn Composite, Balloon Materials Subjected to Shear and Biaxial Loading, page 15:

     The specimen was then removed from the chamber, inspected to determine the mode of failure and whether the failure was of a general nature, or if there was a mistest.

   • 1993, Proceedings: ... International Conference on Multichip Modules, page 157:

     The number may be expected to increase as the number of chips per MCM increases but for the 9 chip bipolar MCM, human errors and mistests occurred just as they have occurred for the 100 chip TCM.

2. (uncountable) The act or process of mistesting.
   • 1978, IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, page 3096:

     All of the above systems are subject to a major problem: mistest.

   • 1983, IBM Journal of Research and Development - Volume 27, page 8:

     Here, PQL₁₁ is the module-detectable PQL caused by module mistest or tester calibration errors,

   • 1992, The International Journal of Microcircuits and Electronic Packaging, page 310:

     Human error and mistest can always occur whether for a 9-chip MCM or a 100-chip MCM, or whether CMOS or bipolar die.