mispraise

mispraise

English

Etymology

From mis- +‎ praise. Compare to French mépriser

Verb

mispraise (third-person singular simple present mispraises, present participle mispraising, simple past and past participle mispraised)

1. (transitive, rare) To praise falsely, injudiciously, or without good reason.[1]
   • 1623, John Donne, The sermons of John Donne, Sermon 12 (Google preview):

     [T]hough I spend my nights, and dayes, and thoughts, and spirits, and words, and preaching, and writing, upon Princes, and Judges, and Magistrates . . . I have not paid a farthing of my debt to God; I have not praised him, but I have praised them, till not only my selfe, but even they, whom I have so mispraised, are the worse in the sight of God, for my over-praising.

   • 1845, Morgan Rattler, "Touching Antony the Triumvir and Cicero the Orator," Fraser's Magazine (September), p. 326 (Google preview):

     We look upon it not so much as a strangely overpraised, but as a mispraised composition. It is a torrent of abuse.

   • 2010, Paul F. O'Rourke (quoting Jonathan Barnes), Offerings to the Discerning Eye, Sue D'Auria (ed.), →ISBN, p. 247 n.25 (Google preview):

     Anaximander's interest in cosmogony has been vastly overestimated, and his achievements consistently mispraised.

2. (transitive, archaic) To slander, blame, or disparage.[2]
   • 1949, Lionel Trilling, Matthew Arnold, →ISBN, p. 106 (Google preview):

     On hearing the Duke of Wellington mispraised he defends him, in a sonnet.

References

1. Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd ed., 2002.
2. Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd ed., 2002.