misfit

From mis- +‎ fit.

• (UK, noun) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪs.fɪt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (UK, verb) IPA^(key): /mɪsˈfɪt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪt

misfit (plural misfits)

1. (now rare) An ill-fitting garment.
   • 1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC:

     Mr Toots’s legs shake under him; and though he is splendidly dressed, he feels misfits, and sees wrinkles, in the masterpieces of Burgess and Co., and wishes he had put on that brightest pair of boots.

2. A failure to fit well; unsuitability, disparity.
   • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 94:

     And the fact that Christianity's Jesus is the resurrected Christ makes a vital point about the misfit between the Jesus whose teachings we have excavated and the Church which came after him.

3. A badly adjusted person; someone unsuitable or set apart because of their habits, behaviour etc.
   • 2019, Amanda Koci, Henry Walter, Charlie Puth, Maria Smith, Victor Thellm Gigi Grombacher, Roland Spreckle (lyrics and music), “So Am I”, performed by Ava Max:

     Do you ever feel like a misfit?
     Everything inside you is dark and twisted
     Oh, but it's okay to be different
     'Cause baby, so am I

   • 2008, Adrian Blomfield, "Has Russia got a new Stalin?", Telegraph, 1 Mar 2008 Article:

     Just to be on the safe side, the Kremlin has also banned any of Putin's serious critics from standing. Three unelectable misfits have been allowed to mount token challenges.

   She was very unhappy in Iraq and a misfit in the Army.

   The MBA was a misfit when stuck in a meeting with the programmers.

• (badly adjusted person): See also Thesaurus:outcast or Thesaurus:maverick

• misfit stream

misfit (third-person singular simple present misfits, present participle misfitting, simple past and past participle misfitted)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To fit badly.

   His suit was misfitted and looked awkward.