mispromise

English

Etymology

mis- +‎ promise

Noun

mispromise (plural mispromises)

1. A false promise; A promise that is made insincerely.
   • 1994, McKinney's Consolidated Laws of New York Annotated, page 465:

     witness testified that no trickery, deceit, coercion, or fraud or mispromise had been made to him to induce representation by public officials.

   • 1999, Tracy Kidder, House:

     Back then, any time he spent on one project he stole from another. That was the cause of what he calls his "one flagrant mispromise."

   • 2005, Timo Kasper, Sara Melkko, Tomi T. Ahonen, 3G Marketing: Communities and Strategic Partnerships, page 164:

     In most industries with concrete tangible products, this kind of overpromise is rarely seen, but with intangible brands very serious overpromises or mispromises can be made where the brand promise collides with the reality of the actual service.

Verb

mispromise (third-person singular simple present mispromises, present participle mispromising, simple past and past participle mispromised)

1. To make a mispromise; to promise insincerely.
   • 1842, anonymous author, “Hints In Rhyme for the Nursery”, in The Servants' magazine, or Female domestics' instructor, page 117:

     In your language be simple and clear as you can, Let no sort of deception e'er enter your plan; Never threaten with objects terrific and vain, Nor mislead or mispromise compliance to gain.

   • 1898 February 24, Leonard Bacon, Joseph Parrish Thompson, Richard Salter Storrs, “Insurance: The Path of Safety”, in The Independent, volume 50, page 23:

     Therefore the Association must cease absolutely to mispresent or miscall or mispromise; the longer it delays so doing, the more difficulty it adds to its task.

   • 1979 June 21, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Governmental Affairs, Nomination of Rowland G. Freeman III: Hearing Before the Committee on Governmental Affairs, United States Senate, Ninety-sixth Congress, page 110:

     I do not say or infer that Mr. Javits mispromised anything. I simply state that the subsidiary's progress on its three potential products, as reported in the annual report, dated 1 September 1969, suggests it was highly unlikely that Mr. Javits could have made a good faith promise on 14 October 1968 and, in particular, on 5 March 1969 that the subsidiary would be in production on all three of its alleged potential products in the Spring of 1969.