▪ I. misease, n. arch.
(mɪsˈiːz)
Forms: see mis-2 and ease n.; also 3 meoseise, 4 myseis, myssis, mishese, meseysey (?), 5 myssaes.
[a. OF. mesaise (from 13th c.), f. mes- mis-2 + aise ease.]
1. Distress, affliction; trouble, misery; extreme suffering or discomfort. Also pl. Obs. exc. arch.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 114 Al þet flesch þunccheð sur oðer bitter, þet is, pine & weane, & teone, & alle meseise. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 2460 Þe vnkynde þou wilt vp reyse, Þe kynde þou puttest to meseysey. c 1375 Cursor M. 3596 (Fairf.), Squa has now elde þis ysaac led þat he in mys-ese [Cott. langur] lijs in bed. 1382 Wyclif Gen. iii. 16, I shal multiply thi myseses and thi conceyuyngis. c 1386 Chaucer Pars. T. ¶102, I go with-oute returning..to the lond of misese and of derknesse, where-as is the shadwe of deeth. c 1440 York Myst. xx. 213 Mysese [Towneley sorow] had neuere man more. c 1450 Merlin 64 And so endured the kynge in grete mysese for love of Ygerne. 1470–85 Malory Arthur ix. xix. 367 Alle the mysease that sir tristram hath was for a letter that he fond. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 148/3 Wherfore are ye in so grete mesease for brede? Yf ye haue none thys day ye shal haue to morn. 1490 ― Godfrey vi. 25 Alle the meseases & the myschiefs that the peple of our lord endured that tyme. c 1611 Chapman Iliad xiii. 521 His dart, Meriones Pursude, and Adamas so striu'd, with it, and his misease, As doth a Bullocke puffe and storme. 1848 Lytton Harold II. v. ii. 25 ‘Gurth, has my father ailed? There is that in his face which I like not’. ‘He hath not complained of misease’, said Gurth, startled. 1900 F. S. Ellis Rom. Rose I. 7/178 Covetise eggs men on, for their misease, To gather, but to scatter not. |
† 2. Lack of the necessaries of life or of the means of living; poverty, need, want. Obs.
| c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 43 Diuicias et paupertates ne dederis michi sed tantum uictui necessaria, louerd ne gif þu me noþer ne woreld winne ne meseise ac mi bare bileue. a 1300 Cursor M. 4770 Þat he..ar grant þam son menskli to dei, Ar þat misese [Gött. hunger] lang for to drei. a 1325 Prose Psalter xliii. 26 Þou for-ȝetest our mesais [inopiæ nostræ] and our tribulacioun. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. i. 24 Þat on Clothing is from Chele ow to saue: And þat oþer Mete at Meel for meseise of þiseluen. 1389 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 31 Quat broyer or syster..falle in mischefe er mys-ese..he schal han Almesse. 1490 Caxton Godfrey ci. 153 Seyng that our men suffred so moche famyne and mesease. |
3. Uneasiness, disquiet.
| 1905 R. H. Sherard O. Wilde vi. 75, I noticed with some misease that..he seemed to have the middle class contempt for the title of knighthood. |
▪ II. † misˈease, a. Obs.
[app. an adj. use of misease n. modelled on F. aise adj. (? for *aaise = à aise at ease); cf. the forms eese, eise, s.v. easy a.]
Distressed, miserable; in want.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 46 Hwo se is ful meseise, of alle beo heo cwite. Ibid. 162 Uorto urouren ancre þet is meseise [v.r. in meseise]. c 1290 St. Julian 106 in S. Eng. Leg. I. 259 Þis holie Man..mani Miseise Man in is hous wel loueliche vnder-fonge. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. vii. 26 And amende mesondieux þere-myde and myseyse folke helpe. c 1440 [see miseased]. c 1450 Merlin 94 He..yaf his godes..to mysese peple of his reame. |
| absol. ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 667 To mendynantez and mysese in myschefe fallene. |
▪ III. † misˈease, v. Obs.—0
[a. obs. F. mesaiser, OF. mesaisier, f. mesaise misease n.]
trans. To trouble, inconvenience.
| 1530 Palsgr. 637/1 If you take this waye, it wyll mysease you. |