Miscalibrates

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To adjust something inaccurately, leading to erroneous measurements or outputs
2. to set a device in a wrong manner, resulting in misinterpretations of readings
3. to improperly align an instrument which affects its precision and performance

Etymology: "Miscalibrates" is the third-person singular present form of "miscalibrate", a verb meaning to set or adjust an instrument incorrectly. The base verb is "calibrate", which is itself built on the Latin "calibre" (the diameter of a gun barrel or bore), so the modern word is a compound: "mis-", an Old English prefix meaning "wrongly" or "amiss", inherited from Germanic, joined to "calibrate". The root "calibre" has a surprisingly concrete start. It came into English from French and ultimately from Arabic and Latin roots associated with a mould or measure, and for centuries it referred only to the internal width of a firearm or a cannon. The idea of measuring a bore's diameter gradually widened into judging the width or quality of a person, and eventually into the sense of accurately checking any measuring device against a standard. "Calibrate" follows that path, with the Latinate "-ate" ending that turns a noun into a verb. Adding "mis-" produces the sense of getting that standard-setting wrong. Because the prefix is ancient Germanic and the core is a later technical term, the word is a hybrid: an Old English prefix attached to a borrowed technical vocabulary.

Synonyms: misjudge, misalign, misadjust, misset, mistune

Antonyms: calibrates, aligns, adjusts, sets, tunes