Misapply
//ˌmɪsəˈplaɪ// verb
verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Verb
- 1 To apply incorrectly; to misuse.
"It may be that the jury in this case have misapplied the rule laid down by this Court, but not in favour of the defendants. I cannot help thinking they might well have held the watercourse to be the true boundary line between the two properties."
- 2 apply to a wrong thing or person; apply badly or incorrectly wordnet
Example
More examples"It may be that the jury in this case have misapplied the rule laid down by this Court, but not in favour of the defendants. I cannot help thinking they might well have held the watercourse to be the true boundary line between the two properties."
Etymology
From mis- + apply.
More for "misapply"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.