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Synonyms

misgive

American  
[mis-giv] / mɪsˈgɪv /

verb (used with object)

misgave, misgiven, misgiving

  1. (of one's mind, heart, etc.) to give doubt or apprehension to.

verb (used without object)

misgave, misgiven, misgiving

  1. to be apprehensive.

misgive British  
/ mɪsˈɡɪv /

verb

  1. to make or be apprehensive or suspicious

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of misgive

First recorded in 1505–15; mis- 1 + give

Vocabulary lists containing misgive

"The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet," Vocabulary from Act 1

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Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

"Lassie, lassie! it's no for me to condemn ye, nor maybe for the dead either, for he was whiles a hard father to you, but I wonder your own woman's heart didn't misgive ye."

From What Necessity Knows by Dougall, Lily

It was probably an unspoken sense of this fact which caused the early Tuscan poets to misgive their own powers and to turn wistfully and shyly towards the poets of Provence and of Sicily.

From Euphorion Being Studies of the Antique and the Mediaeval in the Renaissance - Vol. II by Lee, Vernon

The look on Bimal's face made my mind misgive me.

From The Home and the World by Tagore, Rabindranath

I did tell Berry he'd better stay an' du what Marse Sykes wanted him ter, 'stead of comin' tu der meetin', an' my mind misgive me all day kase he didn't.

From Bricks Without Straw by Tourgée, Albion Winegar

I thought it mighty curus, and my mind misgive me thar was somethin' crooked; but I always pintedly dodges; 'lie-lows to ketch meddlers,' and I went on my way.

From At the Mercy of Tiberius by Evans, Augusta J. (Augusta Jane)

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.