misshape

English

Etymology

From mis- +‎ shape.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (noun) /ˈmɪsʃeɪp/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• IPA^(key): (verb) /mɪsˈʃeɪp/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

misshape (plural misshapes)

1. (obsolete) A misshapen person; a misshapen body. [14th–17th c.]
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     The one of them, that elder did appeare,
     With her dull eyes did seeme to looke askew,
     That her mis-shape much helpt [...].

2. A misshapen object; now especially, a broken item (especially food) sold individually at a cheaper price. [from 19th c.]
   • 1995, Jarvis Cocker et al., Mis-Shapes:

     Mis-shapes, mistakes, misfits
     Raised on a diet of broken biscuits.

Verb

misshape (third-person singular simple present misshapes, present participle misshaping, simple past misshaped, past participle misshaped or (obsolete or poetic) misshapen)

1. To shape badly or incorrectly. [from 15th c.]
   • 1989, John Irving, chapter 9, in A Prayer for Owen Meany‎, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1990, page 601:

     Major Rawls drove us to our motel […] where a swimming pool with underwater lights had the disturbing effect of substantially enlarging and misshaping the swimmers.

Derived terms

• misshaper

Related terms

• misshapen

Anagrams

• emphasis