mistify

English

Etymology

misty +‎ -fy

Verb

mistify (third-person singular simple present mistifies, present participle mistifying, simple past and past participle mistified)

1. (archaic) To envelop or shroud in mist.
   • 1849, Mrs. C. T. Cromwell, Over the Ocean; Or, Glimpses of Travel in Many Lands, page 182:

     Enwrap all this, and more in your imagination, as it is enveloped in the soft transparent haze of this delicious clime, beautifying and mistifying all around, and you may fancy somewhat of the reality.

   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Or, The Whale:

     That for six thousand years — and no one knows how many millions of ages before — the great whales should have been spouting all over the sea, and sprinkling and mistifying the gardens of the deep, as with so many sprinkling or mistifying pots; and that for some centuries back, thousands of hunters should have been close by the fountain of the whale, watching these sprinklings and spoutings—that all this should be, and yet, that down to this blessed minute (fifteen and a quarter minutes past one o'clock PM of this sixteenth day of December, A.D. 1851), it should still remain a problem, whether these spoutings are, after all really water, or nothing but vapor —this is surely a noteworthy thing.

   • 1887, Book Chat - Volume 2, page 321:

     The same fog will cover any area and mistify it as the general adjustable criticism does any book.

   • 1904, Field and Stream, page 1023:

     But premature darkness began to mistify distant objects before we had the mules out of the corral.

2. To turn into mist
   • 1893, Bulletin of Pharmacy - Volume 7, page 327:

     In this syrup the greenish, oily extract is put, and boiled on a slow fire. Now is the time to mistify the preparation.

   • 1926, Automotive Industries - Volume 55, page 298:

     Steam "cut-off" is controlled by means of a small cylinder chamber the fuel is metered through a jet to a mistifying pump, the latter being operated by the blower motor.

   • 1947, Institute of Petroleum (Great Britain), The Journal - Volume 33:

     I have noticed that this oxidation generally occurs where “foaming” or “mistifying” of the lubricant takes place.

   • 1996, Tom Steinbach, Now That Forever Has Ended, page 169:

     Watching his breath mistify in the cold, morning air, he continued, "We have pouches full of old parchments declaring all Your powerful past deeds here in Your chosen land of Judah and Israel.

3. Misspelling of mystify.