Misattend

verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To misunderstand something; to disregard or fail to pay attention. intransitive

    "I would have cabled you to withdraw it from the Century, but I didn't, for I was sure I could depend upon Gilder's declining it. If he hasn't done it, please take it away from him and charge him with being drunk and misattending to his duties."

  2. 2
    To fail to look after properly. transitive

    "Soon after this, she removed from my district; and in the year 1861, again, for the eighth time, was pregnant, when she now fell under the care of an unqualified medical man, who had been appointed by a board of guardians to mis'''attend the poor of a large district."

Example

More examples

"I would have cabled you to withdraw it from the Century, but I didn't, for I was sure I could depend upon Gilder's declining it. If he hasn't done it, please take it away from him and charge him with being drunk and misattending to his duties."

Etymology

From mis- + attend.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.