misshapen
/mɪsˈʃeɪ.pən/
misshapen adjective: having a bad, ugly or awkward shape; deformed; malformed; ill-shapen.
Adjective
misshapen (comparative more misshapen, superlative most misshapen)
- Having a bad, ugly or awkward shape; deformed; malformed; ill-shapen.
- Synonyms:
- misproportioned
- Morally or intellectually warped.
Verb
misshapen (third-person singular simple present misshapens, present participle misshapening, simple past and past participle misshapened)
- Synonym of misshape.
- If the feet are well shaped but have some weakness, they will ultimately give way under the strain of use and lose their natural shape, often becoming distorted. This, of coarse, results in the distortion of the shoe. Few persons realize to what extent shoes are misshapened by defective feet.1924 January 4, William M[athias] Scholl, “Ten Simple Exercises to Help Strengthen Your Feet”, in The Mexia Daily News, volume XXVI, number 3, Mexia, Tex., page five, column 1
- Skin the fish before cooking since the skin shrinks as it cooks and misshapens the fillets.1997, Kay Pastorius, Cruising Cuisine: Fresh Food From the Galley, Camden, Me.: International Marine, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, →ISBN, page 87, column 2
- Synonyms:
- misshape
misshapen meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam
misshapen in Hindi
- misshapen, ugly, deformed
- विरूप virūp
- misshapen, grotesque; asymmetrical; misfit
- बेडौल beḍaul
misshapen in Tamil
- வடிவம் தவறான, உருவக் குறைபாடுள்ள, அவலட்சணமான, வடிவற்ற, அழகற்ற
misshapen in Urdu
- بدہئیت, مسخ شدہ
misshapen in Malayalam
- distorted, deformed, malformed
- വികൃതരൂപമായ, കുരൂപമായ, വിരൂപമായ, കോലംകെട്ട, വെെരൂപമുള്ള, രൂപവെെകൃതമുള്ള
More languagesFewer languages
- misshapen in Kannada
- ವಿಕೃತ vikṛta
- misshapen in Persian
- بیریخت birixt
Examples of misshapen in a sentence
- The archaic past participle shapen is only used in misshapen, ill-shapen, and well-shapen (the latter two are much less common, though).
- Excessive heating in the kiln may produce misshapen bricks known as crozzles.
- Something misshapen and unruly is rising in its place.
Synonyms of misshapen
Antonyms
Forms of misshapen
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more misshapen |
| superlative | most misshapen |
| alternative form | mis-shapen |
| alternative form | mishapen |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | misshapens |
| present participle | misshapening |
| past participle | misshapened |
| past | misshapened |
Origin of misshapen
Inherited from Middle English mysshapen, misse shapen, mysshape, mysshap; equivalent to mis- + shapen.
From Middle English (attested as mysshapend). Probably partly from the adjective and partly from mis- + shapen (verb), though shapen is attested later.
Words formed from misshapen
Questions about misshapen
- What does misshapen mean?
- Misshapen means having a bad, ugly or awkward shape; deformed; malformed; ill-shapen.
- What is misshapen in Hindi?
- Misshapen in Hindi is विरूप (virūp), बेडौल (beḍaul). See Misshapen meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is misshapen?
- Misshapen can be an adjective or a verb.
- How do you pronounce misshapen?
- Misshapen is pronounced /mɪsˈʃeɪ.pən/.
Words near misshapen in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: misshapen (page history and authors); बेडौल (Hindi) (page history and authors); misshapen (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); misshapen (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); misshapen (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); ವಿಕೃತ (Kannada) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-misshapen.wav.
Cite this entry: “misshapen.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/misshapen. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.