misreform

Noun

misreform (plural misreforms)

1. A reform that ends up making things worse.
   • ... whether the party's determination to say that it is going to " abolish the eleven-plus " examination is merely to be a slogan about gradual changes in selection methods, or whether it will herald a serious attempt at educational misreform.1958, The Economist - Volume 187, page 583
   • I give you this hint that you may work up the concluding scene of her life as seraphicly as you can cast over it that sunshine that may be able to dispell all the misreforms that the foregoing had made upon minds really & not pretendly tender for as these last only pride themselves in what they...1992, William Warburton, John Knapton, Donald W. Nichol, Pope's literary legacy

Verb

IPA/mɪsɹəˈfɔː(ɹ)m/

misreform (third-person singular simple present misreforms, present participle misreforming, simple past and past participle misreformed)

1. (obsolete) To make a misreform; to reform badly or in error.
   • And more then this he foysteth in to his translation the worde necessarie in steed of flagitare videntur, And thus like a bungling botcher he patcheth togither those vncertainties of Cassander to make himselfe and others a deceitfull safegarde of greater comfort and benefit for the soule which he...1632, T. T., An Appendix To The Whetstone
   • And I do still believe that, as all the errors of your life have proceeded from too great an excess of charity and therefore they may the rather be called the errors of other men than your's, it is posfible you may exercise more of that Christian virtue, towards those misreformed Churches, than...1773, State Papers: Commencing From The Year MDCXXI, page 402