misfigure

Verb

misfigure (third-person singular simple present misfigures, present participle misfiguring, simple past and past participle misfigured)

1. To miscalculate; to make a computational error.
   • But you make another mistake — you misfigure dates again — and you've got something more to answer for.1960, South of The Angles Jessamyn West, page 166
   • You're a Gray-Area Misfigurer when you misfigure accidentally on purpose. Say your 100 shares of a $20 stock go up to $22, so you claim bragging rights to 10% profits. However, when you figure in commission, your shares really cost more like $2,050.1989, Changing Times, page 56
2. To make an incorrect assessment.
   • "Now, see here, mister, you get right back into that brush, a bargain's a bargain and you're not near the tree yet." “But I'se jest—” “Never mind now, you just misfigured a trifle, that's all, and I stay in the open till the tree is reached.”1891, Outing - Volume 18, page 380
   • And they did and the end began, and all Winkler 's words couldn't stop it: "Even prophets can misfigure, but the Vision's still true. Christ's still coming . Why leave; life's good here. "1997, John Wood, The Gates of the Elect Kingdom: Poems, page 28
3. To misrepresent or disguise.
   • If M W, at any time seemes to make some slender explication of himselfe in some of these particulars, he soone misfigures againe his owne expression with words of manifest inconsistency therewith: so that the setled judgement of the Author in the Question controverted, must be some where else...1641, John Goodwin, Impedit Ira Animum, Or Animadversions Upon Some of the Looser and Fouler Passages in a Written Pamphlet Intituled., page 6
   • He may misfigure hissen next time as he likes, I shall knaw him.1870, Edward Peacock, Ralf Skirlaugh, The Lincolnshire Squire
4. To disfigure.
   • Section 1427: makes it a misdemeanour for anyone not the owner wilfully to injure, misfigure, remove or destroy the work of art, and, similarly Section 1428: provides that the person who wilfully or maliciously cuts, tears, defaces, disfigures, soils, obliterates, breaks or destorys an object of...1959, Barnett Hollander, The International Law of Art, for Lawyers, Collectors, and Artists, page 247
   • Canst thou look on my poor wrinkld face & not wonder That such alterations misfigures my prime1989, John Clare, Eric Robinson, David Powell, The Early Poems of John Clare, 1804-1822 - Volume 2, page 418
5. To err in the manufacture of an optical surface so that it causes distortions.
   • If the flat rim of the center axicon is misfigured in such a way that its best fit plane is not perpendicular to the axis of symmetry of the center axicon ( defined in a least squares sense ) this deviation will […]1980, Richard N. Shagam, William C. Sweatt, Optical Alignment: Proceedings : July 29-31, 1980, page 111
   • Should the element be misfigured, then these aberrations would be combined with the actual misfigure.1983 August 23, Gregory C . Dente, “Separating misalignment from misfigure in interferograms on off - axis aspheres”, in Precision Surface Metrology, page 188

Noun

IPA/ˈmɪsˌfɪɡə(ɹ)/

misfigure (plural misfigures)

1. An incorrect figure.
   • All the uncertainties and misfigures of plans like this profit the agents and the companies, never the insured.1889, Travelers' Record - Volumes 25-26
   • There are misprints and misfigures and misnames in it.1910, New York Supreme Court Appellate Division First Department, page 256
2. The misfigured portion of an optical surface, or the presence of such a portion.
   • Should the element be misfigured, then these aberrations would be combined with the actual misfigure.1983 August 23, Gregory C. Dente, “Separating misalignment from misfigure in interferograms on off - axis aspheres”, in Precision Surface Metrology, page 188
   • Compensation for optical surface misfigure was provided by a phase conjugating mirror to construct a phase conjugated transmitter subsystem.1989, Bernard David Seery, Optomechanical Design of Laser Transmitters and Receivers, page 255