MISBECOME

OTHER DICTIONARIES BY ESTEFALU:

ITALIANO - FRANCÉS - ESPAÑOL

misbecome

verb transitive

Indicative past: misbecame; past participle: misbecome; present participle: misbecoming.

Etymology: mis-, prefix with the meaning “amiss, badly, wrongly”, and the verb become.

Derived from misbecome: misbecoming, misbecomingly, mesbecomingness.

Definition: (the subject being a thing; the object of the verb being either a thing or a person) to fail to become; to suit ill; to be unsuitable or unbecoming to; not to befit; not to be in harmony with, as if in disagreement; not to be decent to, as if in disproportion.

Synonyms: mis-seem, misbeseem, unbefit, unsuit.

Equivalents: disconvenir (transitive verb), in French; desconvenir a (intransitive verb), in Spanish; disconvenire a (intransitive verb), in Italian.

At length Mrs. Ellison arrived, and entered the room with an air of gaiety rather misbecoming the occasion. Henry Fielding (Amelia)

I could not but smile at the name which so exquisitely misbecame her sturdy and horrible- visaged servitor. Charles G. D. Roberts (By the Marshes of Minas, 1971)

She was lovelier, fairer, and whiter than a lily or than snow upon a branch; but her eyebrows were joined, which somewhat misbecame her. She had very beautiful eyes, and was very eloquent and well-mannered. Barry A. Windeatt (Troilus and Criseyde, 1992)

[…] she was sensible how much a tyrannizing disposition misbecame her. M. Arnaud Berquin – Alexander Anderson (The Children’s Friend)

She don’t look as well as she should, or may be it is the crape bonnet that misbecomes her pretty face. Holme Lee (Against Wind and Tide)

He declined no drudgery […] provided only that it were such drudgery as did not misbecome an honest man. Thomas Macaulay (The History of England, 1855)

***the subject being impersonal with the pronoun it:

Lady Charlotte was a very sensible, grave young lady, and lady Harriet was extremely gay and coquettish; but Mr. Camply tells her how much it misbecomes her to be so and she having good sense, as well as good nature, is convinced of her folly, and likes him so well for his reproof, that she consents to marry him. Sarah Fielding (The Governess)

I thought it misbecame me any longer to receive great emoluments from a country, whose service I could not, and if I could, I should not be suffered to promote. The Monthly Review, edited by George Edward Griffiths

English vocables derived from, or composed with, come: become, becoming (noun, adj.), becomingly, becomingness, come (verb), come (noun), come-back, come-between, come-down, come-in, comer, coming (noun, adj.), downcome, down-comer, down-coming (noun, adj.), newcome, new-comer, offcome, offcomed, offcomer, income, incomed, incomeless, incomer, incoming (noun, adj.), oncome, on-coming (noun, adj.), oncomer, outcome, oucoming, overcome, overcomer, overcoming (noun, adj.), overcomingly, upcome, upcoming (adj. noun), unbecome, unbecoming (noun, adj.), unbecomingly, unbecomingness, welcome (noun, int., adj., verb), welcomed, welcomeless, welcomely, welcomeness, welcomer, welcoming (noun, adj.), welcomingly, unwelcome (noun, adj., verb), unwelcomed, unwelcomeness, unwelcoming, unwelcomely; forecome, forecoming, forecomingness; illcome.