Misconfide

verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To confide in someone who does not deserve such trust.

    "Though nothing can be more illegal than misconfiding to the gaoler, by the second clause of the act relating to the management of gaols—the 5th and 6th William IV,— a power which is taken from the local magistrates themselves by the Abolition Act, namely, that of punishing the apprentices; yet a still more arbitrary and unjust authority is given by it to one local magistrate, namely, to treat a repeated breach of these gaol regulations (laid down by themselves, and subject to no approval to render them legal) as a felony;"

Example

More examples

"Though nothing can be more illegal than misconfiding to the gaoler, by the second clause of the act relating to the management of gaols—the 5th and 6th William IV,— a power which is taken from the local magistrates themselves by the Abolition Act, namely, that of punishing the apprentices; yet a still more arbitrary and unjust authority is given by it to one local magistrate, namely, to treat a repeated breach of these gaol regulations (laid down by themselves, and subject to no approval to render them legal) as a felony;"

Etymology

From mis- + confide.

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