a1225 (c1200) Vices & Virtues (1888) 37 (MED) Sume misunderstondet hier ðis hali writt.

a1425 J. Wyclif Sel. Eng. Wks. (1871) II. 123 Þei mysundirstonden þer lawe and slewen men ofte falsely.

c1475 (?c1400) Apol. Lollard Doctr. (1842) 99 (MED) Oþer vertuous werkis, þat men mis vndirstonden now and turnen al in to pride and coueteys.

1529 T. More Dialogue Heresyes i. xxi, in Wks. 147/2 That some of them which do rede it diligently..may yet for al that, mistake & misvnderstand it.

1569 A. Golding tr. N. Hemmingsen Postill To Rdr. sig. Xx.vi It is properly the occasion of falling which as well the wilful as the weake do take by miswresting or by misvnderstanding the doctrine of Election and predestination.

1614 W. Raleigh Hist. World i. i. iii. §9. 47 He failed in distinguishing these two Regions, both called Eden: and..misvnderstood two of the foure Riuers (to wit) Pison and Gehon.

1629 H. Burton Truth's Triumph 310 It is plaine hee mis-vnderstandeth..the place.

1665 G. Wither Medit. upon Lords Prayer Preamble Beseeching him to pardon what is misdone or missaid, by others, or misunderstood by me.

1778 F. Burney Evelina I. xxi. 173 His booby of a servant had misunderstood his orders.

1791 A. Radcliffe Romance of Forest I. i. 16 His sense of compassion was too sincere to be misunderstood.

1864 J. Bryce Holy Rom. Empire ix. 161 To praise or to decry the Empire as a despotic power is to misunderstand it altogether.

1889 ‘M. Twain’ Connecticut Yankee xl. 512 There wasn't any way to misunderstand the language of that challenge.

1914 J. Joyce Dubliners 75 Polly knew that she was being watched, but still her mother's persistent silence could not be misunderstood.

1988 P. Gardiner Kierkegaard i. 1 Either they did not read what he wrote or else, if they did, they misunderstood its underlying import.

a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) 19152 In þe nam O Iesu..þat alwais yee mis-vnderstode.

1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 639/1 He that mys~vnderstandeth a man must nedes make a folysshe answere.

1676 W. Allen Serious & Friendly Addr. Non-conformists 69 When Nicodemus grosly mis-understood our Saviour, and demanded how can these things be?

1742 H. Fielding Joseph Andrews I. ii. xvii. 305 ‘Since thou art so dull to misunderstand me still,’ quoth Adams, ‘I will inform thee; the travelling I mean is in Books.’ View more context for this quotation

1791 R. Cumberland Observer (ed. 2) V. cxl. 151 I conceive I have been misunderstood as having carried my attack against the moral doctrines of Socrates.

1841 R. W. Emerson Ess. 1st Ser. (Boston ed.) ii. 47 To be great is to be misunderstood.

1878 H. James Watch & Ward iv. 75 No one should be condemned unheard. We may all misunderstand each other.

1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. xv. [Circe] 433 I am a man misunderstood. I am being made a scapegoat of.

1987 D. Lindsay Haunted Woman 64 Don't misunderstand me, Miss Loment. I don't assert that an infatuated man couldn't be hoodwinked by a clever woman.