misorientate

Verb

misorientate (third-person singular simple present misorientates, present participle misorientating, simple past and past participle misorientated)

1. (transitive) To position (something) incorrectly, especially so that it faces in the wrong direction.
   • Sometimes I would misorientate slides 90 degrees or 180 degrees.1974, Keith Copeland, Aids for the Severely Handicapped, page 99
   • You might misorientate the connector, i.e. connect it the wrong way round.2004, Jenny Lawson, A+ Certificate in Computer Maintenance and Installation Level 2, page 135
2. (intransitive) To become incorrectly positioned, especially to face in the wrong direction.
   • The price system does not signal the changes continually taking place in the value and market relations; it necessarily misorientates in matters of economic decisions.1973, Béla Csikós Nagy, Socialist Economic Policy, page 44
   • Thus the sub-grains gradually misorientate until they become recognizable separate entities, i.e. small recrystallized grains.1976, R. G. J. Strens, E. G. Strens, The Physics and Chemistry of Minerals and Rocks, page 81
3. (reflexive) To become confused about one's position relative to one's environment; to become disoriented.
   • It is poetic justice of sorts that the church whose foreign agents and those indigenous members who chose to misorientate themselves has also given us these […]2003, C. Krydz Ikwuemesi, The Triumph of a Vision, page 198