misdiˈrection
[mis-1 4.]
1. a. Wrong or improper direction or guidance; the action of misdirecting or the condition of being misdirected; direction to a wrong address.
| 1768 Blackstone Comm. III. xxiii. 373 A new trial..is now very commonly had for the misdirection of the judge at nisi prius. 1830 Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) I. 228 The great object of fear to the middle classes, is the apprehended violence and misdirection of those with whom they think they would have to join. 1857 Whewell Hist. Induct. Sci. (ed. 3) I. 216 The mis-direction of their efforts. 1860 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. III. 48 The two notes..were received together (on account of misdirection). 1875 Act 38 & 39 Vict. c. 77 Order xxxix, A new trial shall not be granted on the ground of misdirection..unless..some substantial wrong or miscarriage has been thereby occasioned in the trial of the action. |
b. Of the action of a conjurer, thief, etc.: distraction, guidance (of a person's attention) away from (something).
| 1943 A. Christie Moving Finger x. 124 A conjuring trick... You've got to make people look at the wrong thing and in the wrong place—Misdirection, they call it. 1949 Amer. Speech XXIV. 40 When the performer directs your attention, by word, glance, or gesture, away from a secret function, he calls the process misdirection. 1955 Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. xxiv. 16 The thieves can apply misdirection (verbal, kinesic, tactile) to take his mind off his wallet—if only for a few seconds—and he will be astonished to find that he has been robbed. 1971 P. O'Donnell Impossible Virgin iv. 71 There had been callers at the house... None of them had been genuine... It was all part of a misdirection play. |
2. A wrong direction, line, or course.
| 1861 Craik Hist. Eng. Lit. II. 517 Whatever of mis⁓direction any of them may have given for a time to the form of our poetry. 1887 H. S. Holland Christ or Eccles. (1888) 8 We..wonder whether the entire movement of human life has not..taken some terrible misdirection. |