MISTAKE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Mistake

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/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."

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Etymology of 'Mistake'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Mistake" Quotes from Famous Books

... It was a play somewhat resembling the Comedy of Errors, in which twin brethren suffer through mistaken identity. "This," said Chikamatsu, "has the proper spirit of the drama, for it takes the audience into consideration. The public is permitted to know more than the actors. It knows where the mistake lies, and pities the poor figures on the board who innocently rush to ...

— The Book of Tea • Kakuzo Okakura

... free mind, he has lent it a strong impulse, it seems to me, in opposing to each other by a harsh contrast the two principles which act upon the human will. Perhaps it was hardly possible, from the point of view in which he was placed, to avoid this mistake; but he has exposed himself seriously to it. Upon the basis of the question there is no longer, after the demonstration he has given, any discussion possible, at least for the heads which think and which are quite willing to ...

— The Works of Frederich Schiller in English • Frederich Schiller

... same year."[98:1] Neither then nor afterward was there any trace of doubt in the minds of the New England settlers, in going three thousand miles away into the seclusion of the wilderness, of their indefeasible moral right to pick their own company. There was abundant opportunity for mistake and temptation to wrong-doing in the exercise of this right, but the right itself is so nearly self-evident as ...

— A History of American Christianity • Leonard Woolsey Bacon

... comprehension. Unfortunately the letter did not reach her. Being entirely taken up with great ladies, Leander overlooked their waiting-maids, and did not trouble himself to show them any attentions or gallantries—wherein he made a sad mistake—for if the pistoles he gave to Jeanne, with his precious epistle, had been supplemented by a few kisses and compliments, she would have taken far more pains to execute his commission. As she held the letter carelessly in ...

— Captain Fracasse • Theophile Gautier

... Hitherto very little has been done to inform the world as to the actual contribution of the free Negro prior to the Civil War. Few persons realize that there were half a million such Negroes in the United States at that time. It is a mistake, therefore, to consider this better selected group of the race so insignificant as not to influence the history of the communities in which they lived. A number of histories have been written since the Civil War, however, with a view to meeting this need for a treatment of this neglected ...

— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 7, 1922 • Various

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