*To MISREPRESENT. v. a. [mis and reprefent.] To reprefent not as it is; to fallify to difadvantage: mis often fignifies not only error, but malice or mischief.-Two qualities neceflary to a reader are common honefty and common fenfe; and no man could have misrepresented that paragraph, unless he were utterly deftitute of one or both. Savift.-While it is fo difficult to learn the fprings of fome facts, and so easy to forget the circumftances of others, it is no wonder they fhould be fo grofly misrepresented to the publick. Swift.

* MISREPRESENTATION. n. S. [from misreprefent. 1. The act of mifreprefenting.-They have prevailed by misrepresentations, and other artifices. Swift. 2. Account maliciously falfe.-I have fhewn him his foul mistakes and injurious mifreprefentations. Atterbury.

*MISRULE. n. f. [mis and rule.] Tumult; confufion; revel; unjust domination.—

In the portal plac'd, the heav'n-born maid, Enormous riot, and mifrule furvey'd.

Pope.

And through his airy hall the loud mifrule Of driving tempeft is for ever heard. Thomfon. (1.) * MISS. n.. [contracted from mistress. Bailey.] 1. The term of honour to a young girl. Where there are little mafters and miffes in a houfe, they are great impediments to the diverfions of the fervants. Swift. 2. A ftrumpet; a concubine; a whore; a prostitute.

Oh, I should have a heavy mifs of thee, If I were much in love with vanity. Henry IV. -If these papers have that evidence in them, there will be no great mifs of those which are loft. Locke. 2. Miftake; errour. He did without any great mifs in the hardest points of grammar. A cham. 3. Hurt; harm. Obfolete.

Though one fall through heedlefs heafte, Yes is his mile not mickle. Spenfer. (3.) Miss, in geography, a river of Germany, which runs into the Drave; 5 miles E. of Lavamund.

(1.) * To Miss. v. a. [miffen, Dutch and German.] Miffed preter. mild or mist part. 1. Not to hit by the mind; to mistake.—

To heav'n their prayers

Flew up, nor mis'd the way.

Milton.

Nor can I miss the way, fo ftrongly drawn By this new-felt attraction.

2. Not to hit by manual aim.

Milton.

When a man mies his great end, happiness, he will acknowledge he judged not right. Locke. 46 To difcover fomething to be nuexpectedly want ing. Without him I found a weakness, and a miftruftfulness of myself, as one strayed from his beft ftrength, when at any time I miffed him. Sidney. -Nothing was miffed. 1 Sam. xxv. 21. 5. To be without.

We cannot miss him; he does make our fire, Fetch in our wood. Shak.

6. To omit.-He that is fo tender of himself, that he can never find in his heart fo much as to miss a meal. Duty of man.

She would never miss one day, A walk fo fine, a fight fo gay.

7. To perceive want of.

Prior.

What by me thou haft loft thou leaft fhall mifs. Milton.

He who has a firm, fincere friend, may want all ́ the reft without missing them. South. (2.) To Miss. v.n. 1. To fly wide; not to hit.

Flying bullets now,

To execute his rage, appear too flow, They mifs or sweep but common fouls away. Waller. 2. Not to fucceed.-The general root of fuperftition is, that men obferve when things bit, and not when they mi's. Bacon. 3. To fail; to mistake. 4. To be loft; to be wanting.My lord,

Upon my lady's missing, came to me
With his fword drawn.

Shak. -Thy fhepherds we hurt not, neither was there ought mifling unto them. 1 Sam. xxv. 7.—

For a time caught up to God, as once Mofes was in the mount, and miffing long. Milt. 5. To mifcarry; to fail, as by accident.

Th' invention all admir'd and each, how he To be th' inventor mis'd

Milton. 6. To fail to obtain, learn or find: fometimes with of before the object.-Grittus mifing of the Moldavian upon Maylat. Knolles.-The moral and relative perfections of the Deity are easy to be understood by us; upon the leaft reflection we cannot miss of them. Atterbury.

· (1.) * MISSAL. n.f. {miffale, Lat. miffel, Fr.] The mafs book.-By the rubrick of the misfal, in every folemn mafs, the prieft is to go up to the middle of the altar. Stilling fleet.

(2.) The MISSAL contains the feveral maffes to be faid on particular days. It is derived from the Latin mifa, which, in the ancient Christian church, fignified every part of divine fervice.

*To MISSAY. v. n. \mis and say.] 1. To speak ill of to cenfure. Obfolete.

Their ill behaviour garres men missay,
Both of their doctrine and their fay.

2. To fay wrong.

Diggon Davie, I bid her good day, Or Diggon her is, or I miffay.

Spenfer.

Spenfer.

-We are not dwarfs, but of equal ftature, if Vives may not. Hakesvill on Prov.

*To MISSEEM. v. n. [mis and feem.] 1. To make falfe appearance.

Foul Dueffa meet,

Who, with her witchcraft and misseeming sweet, Inveigled her to follow.

Fairy Queen.

it has periodical inundations, by the melting of fnow in the north; fo that in May it overflows the country on each fide, from 60 to 90 miles, and the inundation continues till near the end of July. In the loweft parts of the country there are moraffes, lakes, and canals, along the banks, which are generally covered with trees, and in fome places the course of the river is confined between high precipices. Its inundations always leave a great quantity of mud upon the land, and fometimes carry down trees to the river's mouth, where they form new islands, and render the entrance difficult. Its mouths, which fall into the Gulf of Florida, are fituated between Lon. 89° and 90° W. and between Lat. 29° and 30° N. MISSISSAQUE, a river of Canada, which runs into Lake Huron. Lon. 83. 40. W. Lat. 46. o. N. (1.) * MISSIVE. adj. Įmiffive, Fr. 1. Such as is fent. The king grants a licence under the great feal, called a congé d'ellire, to elect the person he has nominated by his letters missive, Ayliffe's Par. 2. Ufed at diflance.

eftablished among them by the habits of many ages, the fuccefs of the millionaries appears to be little lefs than miraculous. Yet we are allured by the London Papers of the 30th and 31st May, 1803, it has been fo great, that " no fewer than 65,000 perfons lately received the facrament in one fociety only." Among the other advantages arifing from the exertions of these focieties, a trauflation of the Bible into the Gentoo language has been commenced, and is now carrying on by perfons properly skilled in the oriental languages. For farther particulars, we must refer to the Mif fionary Magazine, and fimilar publications by the Societies. We cannot conclude this article, however, without adding a fhort extract from a circular letter published by the Edinburgh Miffionary Society, dated 6th Dec. 1802, refpecting the fuccefs of their miffion to the countries bordering on the Cafpian Sea.“ Almost all perfons, with whom they converfed, agreed in representing the difficulty and extreme danger of fixing their refidence in the S. parts of the Ruffian empire, and ftill more of attempting to convert the natives to the Proteftant faith, infomuch that they almoft despaired of obtaining liberty to travel through the empire; yet, at length, their fears were dispelled, obftructions to their progrefs removed, and their way made profperous. He, in whofe hand are the hearts of all men, raifed up for them a friend in M. Novaflilzoff, a Ruffian nobleman, in the confidence of the emperor, Alexander, and a lord of his bed-chamber. Through his means they obtained not only the permiffion but the approbation of the Ruffian government. Paffports were granted them, with liberty to travel through the empire; poft horfes were ordered; letters of introduction given them; and an open letter was written by M. Novaffilzoff, recommending them to the protection of all civil and military officers. Thus the difficulties have not only been removed, but a degree of public countenance given to the miflion, of which the moft fanguine never entertained a hope." In confequence hereof they travelled above 1400 miles by Mofcow, Tambou, and Sarepta, to Aftrakhan, • Georgia, Tetlis, Circaffia, Karafs, &c. and have every-where met with fuccefs and kindness.

MISSIQUASH, a river of N. America, which feparates the British provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, from its fource to its confluence with Beau Bafin, at the head of Chignecto Channel, and thence due E. to the bay of Verte, in the Straits of Northumberland.

MISSISCOUI. See MICHISCOUI. MISSISIPPI, or the river of St Leavis, a river of North America, one of the largeft in the world. Its fources are unknown; having never been explored; but its length is reckoned upwards of 3000 miles. This noble river, with its eaftern branches, waters five 8ths of the United States, and feparates them from Louisiana and the Indian territories. The rivers and ftreams which fall into it from the W. and E. are very ́ numerous. The largest are, the MISSOURI from the W. and the ILLINOIS, OHIO, and TENNESSEE, from the E. It is navigable up to St Anthony's Falls, and a great way above them. Its banks abound with falt fprings. Like the Nile,

In vain with darts a diftant war they try, Short, and more short, the missive weapons fly. Dryden.

*

(2.) MISSIVE. n. (Fr.] 1. A letter fent: it is retained in Scotland in that fenfe.-Great aids came in to him; partly upon missives, and partly voluntary from many parts. Bacon's Henry VII.2. A meffenger. Both obfolete.

Rioting in Alexandria, you

Did pocket up my letters; and with taunts Did gibe my miffive out of audience. Shak -While wrapt in the wonder of it came miffives from the king, who all hail'd me thane of Cawder. Shak. Macbeth.

MIS-SLIAB, or the MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON, two high mountains of Ireland; the one in Antrim, Ulfter; the other in Kerry, Munster, near Tralee Bay.

MISSON, Francis Maximilian, an eminent French lawyer, who diftinguified himself by his pleadings before the parliament of Paris in favour of the reformers. He retired into England after the revocation of the edict of Nantz, and became a ftrenuous affertor of the Protef tant religion. In 1687 and 1688, he travelled to Italy as governor to an English nobleman: in confequence of which, he published at the Hague, "A new voyage to Italy,' 3 vols 12mo; which has been tranflated into English with many additions. He published alfo the " Sacred Theatre at ̧ Cevennes, or an account of Prophecies and Miracles performed in that part of Languedoc:” Lond. 1707. "Obfervations and Remarks of a Traveller," 12mo, Hague. He died at London in 1721.

MISSOURI, a large river of North America, in Louifiana, which is navigable for at least 1300 miles up, but its length and fource are not known. It runs into the Miffifippi from the W. in Lat. 39° N. 18 miles below the mouth of the Illinois, 195 above that of the Ohio, and 1160 from the Balize, and Gulf of Mexico; but is larger and broader than the Miffifippi. The Britih have flourishing fettlements on the N. and E. banks of this river, and the Spaniards on the S. and W. (if not ceded to France, or by France to the States,) between 600 and 700 miles up.

MISSOURIS, a nation of N. American Indians, who inhabit the banks of the above river, and Lave about Irco warriors.

-Infallibility is an abfolute fecurity of the underftanding from all poffibility of mistake in what it believes. Tillotson. Thofe terrors are not to be charged upon religion, which proceed either from the want of religion, or fuperftitious mistakes about it. Bentley.

(1.) To MISSPEAK. v. a. (mis and speak.] To Speak wrong.

A mother delights to hear Her early child mispeak half-utter'd words.

Donne. (2.)* To MISSPEAK. v. n. To blunder in peak

It is not fo; thou hast misspoke, misheard; Tell o'er thy tale again. Shak. King Lear. MISSUS, in the Circenfian games, were the matches in horfe or chariot races. The ufual rumber of miffus or matches in one day was 24; though Domitian prefented the people with 100. The last match was generally made at the expenfe of the people, who made a collection for the purpose: hence it was called

MISSUS ERARIUS, a fubfcription plate. (1.) *MIST. n. f. [mist, Saxon.] 1. A low thin cloud; a fmall thin rain not perceived in fingle drops.

Old Chaucer, like the morning star,
To us difcovers day from far;

His light thofe mifts and clouds diffolv'd
Which our dark nation long involv'd. Denham.
And mists condens'd to clouds obfcure the
fky,

And clouds diffolv'd, the thirty ground fupply.

Rofc. -As a mift is a multitude of fmall but folid globules, which therefore defcend; fo vapour, and therefore a watery cloud, is nothing elle but a congeries of very fmall and concave globules, which therefore afcend to that height, in which they are of equal weight with the air, where they remain futpended, till by fome motion in the air, being broken, they defcend in folid drops: either fmall, as in a mist, or bigger, when many of them

run together as in rain. Grew.

Hov'ring mifts around his brows are fpread,

Dryden. -A cloud is nothing but a mift flying high in the air, as a mit is nothing but a cloud here below. Locke. 2. Any thing that dims or darkens.-My peoples eyes once blinded with fuch mifts of fufpicion, they are milled into the most defperate actions. K. Charles

His paffion caft a mift before his fenfe, And either made or magnify'd th' offence. Dryd. (2.) MIST, or FOG. See FOG, and METEOROLOGY, Seg. Vi and VIII.

To MIST. v. a. [from the noun.] To cloud; to cover with a vapour or fteam.Lend me a looking-glafs; If that her breath will mist or stain the ftone, Why then the lives. Shak. MISTA'EN. pret. and part. paff. of mistake for mistaken, and fo retained in Scotland.

This dagger hath mista’en, for lo! the sheath Lies empty on the back of Mountague, The point misheathed in my daughter's bofom. Shakefp. (1.) * MISTAKE. n.. [from the verb.] Mifconception; error.

He never fhall find out fit mate; but fuch As fome misfortune brings him, or mistake. Milt.

(2.) A MISTAKE is any wrong action committed, not through an evil defign, but through an exor of judgment.

(3.) MISTAKE, in Law. Sce IGNORANCE, $4. (4.) MISTAKE BAY, a large Bay of N. Ameri ca, on the W. fide of the entrance into Davis's Straits and N. of Hudson's straits.

*

(1.) To MISTAKE. 7. a. [mis and take. To conceive wrong; to take fomething for that which it is not.-Thefe did apprehend a great affinity between their invocation of faints and the heathen idolatry, or elfe there was no danger one should be mistaken for the other. Stilling feet.-This will make the reader very much mistake, and misunderstand his meaning. Locke.-Fancy paffes for knowledge, and what is prettily faid is mistaken for folid. Locke.

Fools into the notion fall,

That vice or virtue there is none at all: Afk your own heart, and nothing is so plain; 'Tis to miflake them cofts the time and pain.

*

Pope.

(2.) To MISTAKE. v. n. To err; not to judge right. Seeing God found foily in his angels; mens judgments, which inabit thefe houfes of clay, cannot be without their mistakings. Raleigh. -Seldom any one miflakes in his names of fimple ideas, or applies the name red to the idea green. Locke. Servants mistake, and fometimes occafion misunderstanding among friends. Swift.

* MISTAKEABLE. adv. [from mistake.] Liable to be conceived wrong.-It is not ftrange to fee the difference of a third part in fo large an account, if we confider how differently they are fet forth in minor and lefs mistakeable numbers. Brown.

To be MISTAKEN. To err. [To mistake has a kind of reciprocal fenfe; I mistake, je me trompe. I am mistaken, means, I mifconceive, I am in an error; more frequently than I am ill underfood, but, my opinion is mistaken, means my opinion is not rightly underfood -The towns, neither of the one fide nor the other, willingly opening their gates to ftrangers, nor ftrangers willingly entering for fear of being mistaken. Sidney.

England is fo idly king'd :

-You are too much mistaken in this king: Sh. Miflaken Brutus thought to break their yoke, But cut the bond of union with that ftroke.

* 7, MISTEACH. v. a. [mis and teach.] To teach wrong. Such guides shall be fet over the feveral congregations as will be fure to misleach them, Bishop Sanderson. The extravagances of the lewdeft life are the more confummate diforders of a miflaught or neglected youth. L'Efrange. MISTEK, a town of Moravia, in Prerau. *To MISTELL. v. a. [mi, and tell] To tell unfaithfully or inaccurately.

MISTELPACH, a town of Auftria, 10 miles W. of Zifterftorf, and 18 N. of Vienna.

plain heart-fhaped feed: this plant is always pro duced from feed, and is not to be cultivated in the earth, but will always grow upon trees; whence the ancients accounted it a fuper-plant, who thought it to be an excrefcence on the tree without feed. The manner of its propagation is as follows: the mistletoe thruth, which feeds upon the berries of this plant in winter when it is ripe, doth open the feed from tree to tree; for the vifcous part of the berry, which immediately furrounds the feed, doth fometimes faften it to the outward part of the bird's beak, which, to get difengaged of, he ftrikes his beak at the branches of a neighbouring tree, and fo leaves the feed ficking by this vifcous matter to the bark, which, if it lights upon a fmooth part of the tree, will faften itfelf, and the following winter put out and grow: the trees which this plant doth most readily take upon are the apple, the afh, and fome other smooth rind trees: whenever a branch of an oak tree hath any of thefe plants growing upon it, it is cut off, and preferved by the curious in their collections of natural curiofities. Miller.—

To MISTEMPER. v. a. [mis and temper.] To temper ill; to diforder.

This inundation of miftemper'd humour Reits by you only to be qualified. Shakelp. * MISTER. adj. [from meflier, trade, F. What mister, what kind of. Obfolete.

The redcrofs knight toward him croffed faft, To weet what mister wight was so diẩmay'd. Sperr. *To MISTERM. v. a. [mis and term.] To term erroneously.

Hence banished, is banish'd from the world; And world exil'd is death. That banished Is death misterm'd.

Shak.

*To MISTHINK. v. a. [mis and think.) To think ill; to think wrong.

How will the country, for thefe woful chances,

Mifthink the king, and not be fatisfy'd.

We, the greateft, are mifthought

For things that others do.

Shak.

Shak. Thoughts! which how found they harbour in thy breast,

Adam, Mijthought of her to thee fo dear! Milt. MISTIC. See MYSTIC.

* To MISTIME. v. a. {mis and time.] Not to time right; not to adapt properly with regard to time.

⚫ MISTINESS. n. f. [from misty.] Cloudinefs; ftate of being overcaft.-The speedy depredation of air upon watery moisture, and verfion of the fame into air, appeareth in the fudden vanishing of vapours from glafs, or the blade of a fword, fuch as doth not at all detain or imbibe the moifture, for the miflinefs fcattereth immediately. Bacon.

MISTINSINS, a nation of N. American Indians, who inhabit the S. fide of a lake fo named in Lower Canada.

* MISTION. n. f. [from miftus, Lat.] The state of being mingled.-In animals many actions are mixt, and depend upon their living form, as well as that of miflion. Brown.-Both bodies do, by the new texture refulting from their miftion, produce colour. Bogle.

MISTISSINNY, a large lake of Canada; extending from Lon. 73. 40. to 75. 15. W. and from Lat. 50. 18. to 51. o. N.

(1.) * MISTLETOE. n. [. \myfteltan, Sax. miftel, Danith, birdlime, and tan, a twig.] A plant.-The flower of the mistletoe confifts of one leaf, which is shaped like a bafon, divided into 4 parts, and befet with warts; the ovary which is produced in the female flowers is placed in a remote part of the plant from the male flowers, and conits of 4 fhorter leaves; this becomes a round berry full of a glutinous fubftance, inclofing a

1

The trees, though Summer, yet forlorn and lean,

O'ercome with mofs, and baleful miffeltoe. Shak. Mieltoe groweth chiefly upon crab trees, apple trees, fometimes upon hazles, and rarely upon oaks: the miffelige whereof is counted very medicinal: it is ever green Winter and Summer, and beareth a white gliftering berry; and it is a plant utterly differing from the plant upon which it groweth. Bacon.

All your temples ftrow With laurel green, and facred mifletoe. (2.) MISTLETOE. See DRUIDS, § 11, and Vis

CUM.

Gay.

MISTLIKE. adj. [mift and like.] Refembling

a mift.

Good Romeo, hide thyfelf. -Not I, unlefs the breath of heart-fick groans Miflike infold me from the fearch of eyes.

* MISTOLD, particip. paff. of mistell. * MISTOOK, particip. paff. of mistake. Look nymphs, and thepherds look, What fudden blaze of majefty,

Too divine to be mislook.

Shak.

Milton.

* MISTRESS. n. f. [maistress, maîtreffe, French.] 1. A woman who governs: correlative to fubje& or to fervant.

Here ftood he in the dark, his sharp fword out, Mumbling of wicked charms, conj'ring the