Misinfluence
noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A bad influence; something that misinfluences. countable, uncountable
"So I must also keep in mind as I write this that what I describe, again, may not tend to truth because of some environmental misinfluence."
- 2 The act or status of misinfluencing. countable, uncountable
"We can supplement them; we can keep them from exerting any great misinfluence; in short , we can use them instead of being used by them ."
- 1 To influence in a detrimental manner; to act as a bad influence on.
"It would still continue to work within as a disturbing and perturbing potency, which detracts from the proper freshness and vigour of the moral zeal, which misinfluences man more or less to yield inclinations and undercurrents of feeling, which do not appear in directly definite offences but still imperceptibly induces in the one direction or the other a state of inertness, of selfish pusillanimity or a prevailing tone of sharpnes and bitterness of disposition of mind;"
Example
More examples"It would still continue to work within as a disturbing and perturbing potency, which detracts from the proper freshness and vigour of the moral zeal, which misinfluences man more or less to yield inclinations and undercurrents of feeling, which do not appear in directly definite offences but still imperceptibly induces in the one direction or the other a state of inertness, of selfish pusillanimity or a prevailing tone of sharpnes and bitterness of disposition of mind;"
Etymology
From mis- + influence.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.