MISGIVING • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Misgiving

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/mɪsgˈɪvɪŋ/ Listen

noun

misgiving n. Evil premonition; doubt; distrust; a feeling of apprehension; used commonly in the plural. "Suspicious and misgivings."

verb

Misgive v. t. (past misgave; past part. misgiven; pres. part. misgiving)

To give or grant amiss. (Obs.)

Specifically: To give doubt and apprehension to, instead of confidence and courage; to impart fear to; to make irresolute; usually said of the mind or heart, and followed by the objective personal pronoun. "So doth my heart misgive me in these conflicts What may befall him, to his harm and ours." "Such whose consciences misgave them, how ill they had deserved."

To suspect; to dread. (Obs.)

Misgive v. i. (past misgave; past part. misgiven; pres. part. misgiving) To give out doubt and apprehension; to be fearful or irresolute. "My mind misgives."

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Etymology of 'Misgiving'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Misgiving" Quotes from Famous Books

... getting up to fetch her writing materials as she spoke. "It is such a satisfaction to consult together about what we do. I was only a little afraid of being hard upon the child, but as you agree with me, I have no longer any misgiving." ...

— The Cuckoo Clock • Mrs. Molesworth

... animal which, as we all know, finds itself moved to such exertions only during moments of the most ecstatic joy). Nevertheless the guest did at least execute such a convulsive shuffle that the material with which the cushions of the chair were covered came apart, and Manilov gazed at him with some misgiving. Finally Chichikov's gratitude led him to plunge into a stream of acknowledgement of a vehemence which caused his host to grow confused, to blush, to shake his head in deprecation, and to end by declaring that the concession was nothing, and that, his one desire being to manifest the dictates ...

— Dead Souls • Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol

... the snow-shack, they did reach listening ears—a great white bear, wandering the floes in search of some sleeping seal, stood first on all fours, then on his haunches, to listen. Then, with many a misgiving and many a pause, he made his cautious way to the edge of that particular ice-flat where the plane rested. Thence, after more misgivings, he trundled his awkward body across the flat and took a position close to the plane, where, on his haunches, he stood and watched the apparently ...

— Lost In The Air • Roy J. Snell

... at him, still with a kind of lingering misgiving, but feeling that gentle patting on ...

— Tom Slade on Mystery Trail • Percy Keese Fitzhugh

... the ferryboat, we crossed the Missouri in the evening. Then riding again a few miles eastward, we stopped before a massive brick building. I looked at it in amazement, and with a vague misgiving, for in our village I had never seen so large a house. Trembling with fear and distrust of the palefaces, my teeth chattering from the chilly ride, I crept noiselessly in my soft moccasins along the narrow hall, keeping very close to the bare wall. I was as frightened ...

— American Indian stories • Zitkala-Sa

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