▪ I. ˌmisunderˈstanding, vbl. n.
[mis-1 3.]
1. Failure to understand; mistake of the meaning; misconception, misinterpretation.
| c 1449 Pecock Repr. i. xii. 60 The mis vndirstonding of the firste text. 1579 W. Wilkinson Confut. Fam. Love B i, All controuersies growne among men about their misunderstanding of the Scriptures. 1644 Milton Bucer on Div. xxviii. 11 Through misunderstanding of the law. 1685 South Serm. (1697) I. viii. 347 The misunderstanding of a word. a 1839 Praed Poems (1864) II. 184 Misrepresentations of reasons, And misunderstandings of notes. |
2. The condition in which parties fail to come to an ‘understanding’; an interruption of harmonious relations; dissension, disagreement.
| 1642 Chas. I in Rushw. Hist. Coll. (1721) iii. II. 5 The malignant Party, which have..begot this Misunderstanding between us and our good Subjects. 1691–2 Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) II. 339 The accommodation which seem'd to be in view between the pope and the French, upon some mis⁓understanding, quite disappears. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 263 ¶3 The many Misunderstandings which are created by the Malice and Insinuation of the meanest Servants between People thus related. 1849 Cobden Sp. 17 America has three times, within the last few years, had a misunderstanding with two of the greatest Powers of the world. 1859 Geo. Eliot A. Bede xxxiii, Some little pique or misunderstanding between them. 1867 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1877) I. ii. 38 Occasional misunderstandings seem not to have seriously interrupted their friendship. |
▪ II. ˌmisunderˈstanding, ppl. a.
[mis-1 2.]
That misunderstands. Also absol.
| 1610 Healey St. Aug. Citie of God 333 The mis-understanding reader..might imagine that the Pagans worshipped gods in the Temples. 1675 Baxter Cath. Theol. ii. v. 107 These are but the bold effusions of a misunderstanding contentious temerarious passion. 1881 Athenæum 23 July 103/3 Whatever is most vicious in a style which grows out of a misunderstanding worship of Keats. 1900 W. M. Sinclair Unto You Young Men iii. 72 Doubts and difficulties may make sad..the fainthearted, the misunderstanding. |
Hence misunderˈstandingly adv., by a miscomprehension.
| 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Wold, Wold,..as Stow in the Wolds, and Cotswold..is sometimes misunderstandingly confounded with Weald. |