miscall

English

Etymology

From Middle English miscallen, equivalent to mis- +‎ call.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɪskɔːl/

Verb

miscall (third-person singular simple present miscalls, present participle miscalling, simple past and past participle miscalled)

1. (now dialectal) To call (someone) bad names; to insult, abuse.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     But one aboue the rest in speciall, / That had an hog beene late, hight Grille by name, / Repined greatly, and did him miscall, / That had from hoggish forme him brought to naturall.

   • 1644, John Milton, Aeropagitica:

     He there exhorts us to hear with patience and humility those, however they be miscall'd, that desire to live purely, in such a use of Gods Ordinances, as the best guidance of their conscience gives them, and to tolerat them, though in some disconformity to our selves.

2. To call (something) by the wrong name.
   • 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin 2011, p. 48:

     ‘In this country, peasants miscall it “Cowslip,” though of course the true Cowslip, Primula veris, is a different plant altogether.’

3. (poker, transitive) To make a wrong call; to announce (one's hand of cards) incorrectly.
   • 1983, David M. Hayano, Poker Faces: The Life and Work of Professional Card Players (page 59)

     When the loser thinks he has the hand beat he turns over his hand only to find that the winner has miscalled his hand, and since "cards speak," the miscaller wins.