misplot

English

Etymology

mis- +‎ plot

Verb

misplot (third-person singular simple present misplots, present participle misplotting, simple past and past participle misplotted)

1. To incorrectly mark the position of.
   • 1984, James Chandler, Wordsworth's Second Nature: A Study of the Poetry and Politics:

     I believe that M. H. Abrams, Harold Bloom, and Geoffrey Hartman, for example, all miss or misplot Wordsworth's position on the crucial intellectual axes represented by Burke and Rousseau.

   • 1989, Marshall Houts, Leonard Marmor, Proving Medical Diagnosis and Prognosis: Orthopedic tests: neck, page 106-19:

     If the doctor is not familiar with the dermatome patterns, he may misplot the dermatome areas, and the test may be either a false positive or a false negative.

   • 1999, Tom Cool, Secret Realms, page 155:

     They implanted viruses that would make the systems report aircraft where none existed, hide some aircraft that were airborne, and misplot the positions and altitude of other aircraft.

   • 2018, Paul Boissier, Understanding a Nautical Chart:

     And I take real care if I am crossing the Greenwich meridian or the equator, when the scale reverses: it is incredibly easy to misplot a position.

2. To make an error in planning a trajectory or route.
   • 1953, Mr. O'Hara, page 52:

     Mr. O'Hara, athlete that he was, misplotted his course and plunged into the well.

   • 1975, John S. Letcher, Jr., “Primer on Piloting”, in Cruising World, volume 1, number 6, page 28:

     It is amazing how easy it is, in the distracting environment of a boat under way, to misplot a bearing by 10°; to write down the wrong time for something; to misidentify charted features used for range; to copy the wrong number out of a table.

   • 1992, Maurice Paterson, Big Sky/little Bullet: A Docu-novel, page 17:

     One day Connie Mayers is at point doing 'recky' while the squad is going over the central highlands, but somehow he has misplotted the course.

   • 2001, Thomas Myron Williams, Thomas Williams, The Devil's Mouth, page 405:

     You did not misread the map, nor did you misplot your course.

3. To make a mistake in forming a course of action or storyline.
   • 1929, Camera: A Practical Magazine for Photographers - Volume 39, page 65:

     And now and then we find a great idea, misplotted and half told.

   • 1999, Marshall B. Tymn, Neil Barron, Fantasy and Horror, page 279:

     By contrast Levin's sequel, Rosemary's Son (1997), is an ill-conceived and misplotted attempt to imagine the future that awaits Rosemary's baby at the dawn of the millennium.

   • 2012, Mike Graves, What's the Shape of Narrative Preaching?, page 100:

     If we misplot ourselves, no doubt we will mislive ourselves; but we are storied creatures.

   • 2017, W.M. Spackman, On the Decay of Criticism: The Complete Essays of W.M. Spackman, page 64:

     As James miscast Adam Verver for his role, so has James's role, it strikes me, been misplotted for him.

Noun

misplot (countable and uncountable, plural misplots)

1. An instance of misplotting.
   • 1963, United States. Bureau of Naval Personnel, Aerographer's Mate 3 & 2, page 117:

     A misplot of ship position is the most frequently made plotting error .

   • 1979, Richard Wolniewicz, Northeast Minneapolis, page 31:

     A printout of individuals too far from block's center enabled me to eliminate obvious misplots.

   • 1998, Jerry D. Greer, Remote Sensing and Ecosystem Management, page 239:

     Of the four locations which turned out not to be cultural, two were small rock outcrops shaped like the blinds that had been positively identified on the aerials, one was a total bust and one may have been a misplot on the topographic map since a large blind was located about 150 meters northwest of the photo location.

   • 2019, Alan Emond, Health for all Children, page 211:

     The point on the graph should be marked with a small but noticeable dot ○ drawn with a pencil, not an ink pen, to allow correction of misplots.

2. (rare) A plot error; an inconsistency or mistake in creating a storyline.
   • 1858, Alexander Lovett Stimson, History of the Express Companies, page 338:

     Some, who read this, may not know what the crowning misplot was, and it will bear mentioning.