▪ I. mishap, n.
(mɪsˈhæp, ˈmɪs-)
Forms: see hap n.1; also 5 myschap, 6 mishhapp.
[f. mis-1 4 + hap n.1, prob. after OF. mescheance mischance.]
1. Evil hap; bad luck; misfortune. Now rare.
| c 1386 Chaucer Monk's T. 255 What man that hath freendes thurgh fortune, Mishap wol make hem enemys. 1470–85 Malory Arthur vii. vii. 221 Thorou myshappe I sawe hym slee two knyghtes at the passage of the water. c 1530 Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866) 32 Wyse laboure & myshappe seldom mete to-gyder. 1591 Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, i. i. 23 Shall we curse the Planets of Mishap? 1633 G. Herbert Temple 132 Artillerie i, From small fires comes oft not small mishap. 1667 Milton P.L. x. 239 It cannot be But that success attends him; if mishap, Ere this he had return'd. 1684 Contempl St. Man i. ii. (1699) 21 The greatest felicity of the World, was tyed to the greatest Mishap. 1807–8 W. Irving Salmag. xvii. (1860) 381 It is either my good fortune or mishap, to be keenly susceptible to the influence of the atmosphere. 1826–34 Wordsw. To May 66 And what if thou, sweet May, hast known Mishap by worm and blight. |
2. In particularized use: An unlucky accident.
| c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 175 Many grete mishappes, many hard trauaile. c 1450 Merlin 5 A worthy man to whom weren falle many myshappes with-in shorte time. c 1586 C'tess Pembroke Ps. cxxi. v, From ev'ry mishapp..Safe thou shalt by Jehovas hand be guarded. 1588 Shakes. Tit. A. i. i. 152 Secure from worldly chaunces and mishaps. 1667 Dryden Ind. Emp. v. ii, I might have liv'd my own Mishaps to mourn. 1781 Cowper Conversat. 321 Alas for unforeseen mishaps! 1836 W. Irving Astoria I. 17 The pleasures, dangers, adventures, and mishaps, which they had shared together in their wild wood life. 1896 Law Times C. 438/2 The musical portion of the service had to be curtailed..in consequence of a mishap to the organ. |
| Proverb. 1509 Barclay Shyp of Folys (1874) II. 251 One myshap fortuneth neuer alone. |
b. A fall from chastity. rare. (Cf. misfortune n. 2.) Cf. dial. mishap-child, a bastard.
| 1857 P. Cunningham Walpole's Lett. I. 95 note, Lady Betty was the friend and correspondent of Swift. In early life she made a mishap. |
▪ II. † misˈhap, v. Obs.
[mis-1 1.]
1. intr. Of a person: To meet with mishap or misfortune; to come to grief. Also, to have the misfortune to do something.
| c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 4967 For þou myshappedest y þe first ende, Now schaltow spede er þat þou wende. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. x. 283 Archa dei myshapped and ely brake his nekke. 1402 Hoccleve Let. of Cupid 217 For many a man by woman hath mishapped. c 1450 Merlin 24 Yef Vortiger hadde be ther, they hadde not so myshapped. 1533 More Apol. 192 b, Mo men then so many, haue misse happed to be..mysse punyshed. |
2. Of an event or impers.: To happen unfortunately. Often with dative pron.
| c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 13280 Grace til hym wold non bytide, But euere mys happed [a 1400 Petyt MS. mishapned] on his syde. 14.. Arth. & Merl. 795 (Douce MS.) For hit was myshapped so, In his herte hym was ful wo. c 1450 Merlin 471 Gawein was euer pensif for his vncle,..that hym sholde eny thinge myshappe. 1533 More Apol. 95 A thynge..myche more to be lamented, when yt myshappeth to fall betwene a man & his wyfe. 1592 Ld. Vaux in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. iii. IV. 109 This mishappethe me by Andrewe Mallories lewdest misleading my sonne. 1633 B. Jonson Tale Tub iii. i, Some things mishap'd, that he is come without her. 1647 Hexham, Misschieden, to Mishap, or to Fall out Ill. |
b. Of a weapon: To fall unluckily.
| 1480 Caxton Chron. Eng. i. a 4, As this Brute shold shete vn to an hert his arwe myshapped..and so there Brute quelled his fadre. |
So † misˈhapping vbl. n., mishap.
| c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 68 Alle his mishappyng felle, he com in to Pountif [Descendist en P. à sa confusioun]. |