miscompose

Verb

miscompose (third-person singular simple present miscomposes, present participle miscomposing, simple past and past participle miscomposed)

1. To produce a defective product or outcome.
   • And, grieved that lives so matched should miscompose, Each mourn the double waste; and question dare To the Great Dame whence incarnation flows, Why those high-purposed children never were: What will she answer?1866, Thomas Hardy, Nature's Indifference
   • […] where much ridicule is directed against the old painter who wrote as Observator; ridicule miscomposed by the editor, Thomas Burgeland Johnson, who wrote also now and then under the pseudonym T. H. Needham.1929, Walter Shaw Sparrow, George Stubbs and Ben Marshall, page 61
2. To arrange an artistic work in a disharmonious way.
   • The Leipzig Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung said that the favourite composer of the Viennese 'has in this case positively miscomposed', but the London Harmonicon considered that the Fantasy possessed 'merit far above the common order'.1985, Charles Osborne, Schubert and his Vienna, page 160
   • We could easily miscompose this so that the time-scales of the two hands matched "better":1988, Stephen Brown, The sense of music, page 249
3. To make up out of the wrong ingredients or the wrong proportions of ingredients.
   • To give examples of the way our native regiments are miscomposed. In a certain cavalry regiment there are one and a half squadrons Sikhs, one-half squadron Hindustani Hindus, one-half squadron Hindustani Mahomedans, three-quarter squadron Punjabi Mussalmans, and three-quarter squadron Pathans.1904, The United Service Magazine - Volume 30, page 372
   • […] this governor contrived that a bill for Georgia's full reinstatement should be reported from Butler's reconstruction committee which among other "fundamental conditions" prolonged this miscomposed legislature for an additional term of two years, in utter defiance of the State constitution.1913, James Schouler, History of the United States of America: 1865-1877., page 169
4. To typeset incorrectly.
   • It was purposely miscomposed , as a protection against forged labels on bottles from other and inferior distilleries.1936, Christopher Sidgwick, German Journey, page 27
   • Although almost universally miscomposed, despite one simple rule governing their use , Roman numerals are a neat typographic element . The rule? Always align Roman numerals on the right , never on the left.1988, Philip Brady, Using Type Right, page 58