MISTAKE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Mistake

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/mɪstˈeɪk/ Listen

noun

Mistake n.

An apprehending wrongly; a misconception; a misunderstanding; a fault in opinion or judgment; an unintentional error of conduct. "Infallibility is an absolute security of the understanding from all possibility of mistake."

(Law) Misconception, error, which when non-negligent may be ground for rescinding a contract, or for refusing to perform it.

No mistake, surely; without fail; as, it will happen at the appointed time, and no mistake. (Low)

Synonyms: Blunder; error; bull. See Blunder.

verb

Mistake v. t. (past mistook; past part. mistaken; pres. part. mistaking)

To take or choose wrongly. (Obs. or R.)

To take in a wrong sense; to misunderstand misapprehend, or misconceive; as, to mistake a remark; to mistake one's meaning. "My father's purposes have been mistook."

To substitute in thought or perception; as, to mistake one person for another. "A man may mistake the love of virtue for the practice of it."

To have a wrong idea of in respect of character, qualities, etc.; to misjudge. "Mistake me not so much, To think my poverty is treacherous."

Mistake v. i. (past mistook; past part. mistaken; pres. part. mistaking) To err in knowledge, perception, opinion, or judgment; to commit an unintentional error. "Servants mistake, and sometimes occasion misunderstanding among friends."

See images of 'Mistake'

Etymology of 'Mistake'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar

"Mistake" Quotes from Famous Books

... already spoken of the attempted assassination, and Simon Turchi had expressed his astonishment, for he did not believe that Geronimo had an enemy in the world. It was quite likely that Bufferio had made a mistake as to the individual, a thing which might easily have happened ...

— The Amulet • Hendrik Conscience

... the history of his adventures, which were not a little surprising. He had, as I before related, started on the 17th of December from the Williams, with only three days' provisions and, owing to some mistake, had taken a south-south-west course and gone off in the direction where we first saw his tracks, and had pursued this route for three days, when, seeing nothing of the coast, he suspected he must be wrong, and endeavoured to make a due west course; ...

— Journals Of Two Expeditions Of Discovery In North-West And Western Australia, Vol. 1 (of 2) • George Grey

... understanding among themselves. With Mexico a dispute has arisen as to the true boundary line between our Territory of New Mexico and the Mexican State of Chihuahua. A former commissioner of the United States, employed in running that line pursuant to the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, made a serious mistake in determining the initial point on the Rio Grande; but inasmuch as his decision was clearly a departure from the directions for tracing the boundary contained in that treaty, and was not concurred in by the surveyor appointed on the part of the ...

— State of the Union Addresses of Franklin Pierce • Franklin Pierce

... bounty? If a man declares that he has received nothing when he is receiving all the while, and from those who will always be giving without ever receiving anything in return, how will he be grateful to those whose kindness cannot be returned without expense? and how great a mistake is it not to be thankful to a giver, because he is good even to him who disowns him, or to use the fact of his bounty being poured upon us in an uninterrupted stream, as an argument to prove that he cannot help bestowing it. Suppose that such men as these say, "I do not want it," "Let him keep it ...

— L. Annaeus Seneca On Benefits • Seneca

... The mistake they make is a very serious one. Instead of living by faith they judge by feeling, in which the old nature speaks and rules. It tells them that God's will is often a burden too hard to be borne, and that they never can have the strength to do it. Faith speaks differently. It reminds us that ...

— Holy in Christ - Thoughts on the Calling of God's Children to be Holy as He is Holy • Andrew Murray

More quotes...