misalter

English

Etymology

mis- +‎ alter

Verb

misalter (third-person singular simple present misalters, present participle misaltering, simple past and past participle misaltered)

  1. To make a change that leaves something worse than before.
    • 1863, Works - Volume 9 -, page 403:
      These are all, besides those which I fore-specified, which have so "misaltered" the liturgy, that it can no more be known to be itself than the strangely-disguised dames which were mentioned in doctor Hall's reproof.
    • 1873, The Coming Man - Volume 1, page 183:
      The tailors were busily at work for the men ; fitting and misfitting, altering and misaltering, and making clothes in every possible way except the right one, for right the clothes of man will never be so long as ever they are intended to fit.
    • 1954, The Artist and the Line: A Lexicon of Lineology, page 109:
      A misaltered line is one not altered correctly.

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