mispull

English

Etymology

mis- +‎ pull

Verb

mispull (third-person singular simple present mispulls, present participle mispulling, simple past and past participle mispulled)

1. To pull badly, using incorrect technique.
   • 2005, Alan D. Gaff, Blood in the Argonne: The "Lost Battalion" of World War I, page 23:

     Recruits had the appearance of “mispulled taffy."

   • 2011, Matthew Hancock, Paul Johnson, 766 and All That, page 177:

     The second ball of his second over is a shortish, straight delivery that Hussey, cramped for room, mispulls straight.

   • 2018, Glen Hirshberg, Nothing to Devour: Motherless Children #3:

     Jess's eyelids had slid down over those icy-blue eyes, almost closed, almost crooked, like mispulled blinds.

2. To pull something that one should not pull.
   • 1920, Bertrand W. Sinclair, Poor Man's Rock, page 179:

     A mispulled switch . . One of those minor accidents common to electric lighting systems .

   • 1991, Thomas J. Beirne, Henry Dauderis, Financial Accounting: An Introduction to Decision Making, page 371:

     This 0.2 % covers miscellaneous breakage, some minor pilferage, mispulled product, and so on.

   • 1994, Mark L. Richie, Quality Management for Educational Technology Services, page 160:

     Where are the losses factored in from rework correcting mispulled items because the pull list was hard to read?

   • 2003, Michael Schoenborn, “Rabbit Bridge”, in Ray Lee, Linda Lee, editors, Northern Lights: The Best of Canadian Master Point Magazine, page 109:

     The tip would read as follows: never defend on the basis that your expert opponent has mispulled his card.

   • 2010, Lauren G. Leighton, Esoteric Tradition in Russian Romantic Literature, page 141:

     To his analysis may be added the same pattern in the concluding plot unit of chapter 6: when Germann mispulls the queen of spades instead of the ace, he leans forward stunned and leans back, leans forward again to see the queen of spaces wink at him, and falls back from the table.

Noun

mispull (plural mispulls)

1. An act of mispulling.
   • 1980, Supervision - Volumes 42-43, page 23:

     Today, a management spokesperson reports, mispulls and misfiles are about 30 percent lower than they were under the old setup.

   • 1982, Timber Processing Industry - Volume 7, page 12:

     At other times, the Klamath unit handles regular trimming while the 1-M unit can accommodate material that must be rehandled, such as mispulls, retrim, regrade and remanufacture.

   • 1990, United States. National Labor Relations Board, Decisions and Orders of the National Labor Relations Board, page 1016:

     On January 11, however, Ochoa again committed a mispull. A Smitty's store had ordered eight cases of size 138 red delicious apples and six size 138 golden delicious apples. Ochoa, however, sent them 14 size 138 golden delicious.

   • 1998 March-April, Marcus J.K. Bankes, John E. Crossman, Roger J.H. Emery, “A standard method of shoulder strength measurement for the Constant score with a spring balance”, in Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery, volume 7, number 2:

     A mispull was automatically awarded zero.

   • 2010, Lauren G. Leighton, Esoteric Tradition in Russian Romantic Literature, page 142:

     On the third night he is supremely confident, and cruelly disabused by his mispull of the third card.

   • 2015, Erik Schubach, London Harmony: Small Fry:

     It was my first mispull at the Archives.