Misdo
verb ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
- 1 To do evil; to commit misdeeds. archaic, intransitive
- 2 do wrongly or improperly wordnet
- 3 To do (something) incorrectly or improperly. transitive
"Afford me place to ſhew what recompence / Towards thee I intend for what I have miſdone,[…]"
- 4 To do harm to; to injure, mistreat. archaic, transitive
"thēne cam out a duchesse / & Clarysyn the countesse with many ladyes & damoysels / and knelyng bifore kynge Arthur requyred hym for the loue of god to receyue the cyte / & not to take it by assaulte for thenne shold many gyltles be slayne / thēne the kyng aualyd his vyser with a meke & noble coūtenaūce / & said madame ther shal none of my subgettys mysdoo you ne your maydens"
Example
More examples"Afford me place to ſhew what recompence / Towards thee I intend for what I have miſdone,[…]"
Etymology
From Middle English misdon, from Old English misdōn (“to do evil, transgress, do amiss, err”), from Proto-Germanic *missadōną (“to do wrongly”), from *missa- (“mis-”), *dōną (“to do”). Corresponding to mis- + do. Cognate with Old Frisian misdūa (“to misdo”), Dutch misdoen (“to offend, do wrongly”), Middle Low German misdōn (“to misdo”), Middle High German missetuon (“to transgress, offend, blame”). More at mis-, do.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.