misbestowv.

1532 T. More Confut. Tyndale in Wks. 355/2 To bestowe his witte..about some better busines then Tindall missbestoweth it now.

1583 A. Golding tr. J. Calvin Serm. on Deuteronomie xxxv. 206 If yee complayne of that time as though it were misbestowed.

1634 Bp. J. Hall Contempl. Hist. New Test. (STC 12640.5) 137 Could the Physitians have given her, if not health, yet relaxation, and painelessnesse, her meanes had not been mis-bestowed.

1700 J. Locke Let. 5 Nov. in J. Locke & E. Clarke Corr. (1927) 573 I desire you..to assist him when you can in what he desires. You will not think your pains or interest misbestowed.

1748 S. Richardson Clarissa III. lxxix. 365 All his compliments are misbestowed.

1814 R. Southey Roderick xxiv. 312 Oh, for a month Of that waste life which millions misbestow!

1877 F. A. Kemble in Atlantic Monthly Mar. 348/1 She bids me to tell you that she values your good-will and esteem extremely, and should do so still more if you did not misbestow so much of them on me.

1969 Times Lit. Suppl. 13 Mar. 277/2 The ‘dubious entitlement Comus’ was misbestowed not by ‘posterity’ but by Thomas Warton.

2001 jubal.westnet.com 16 Nov. (O.E.D. Archive) Pray to him, though he'll probably end up misbestowing his kindnesses on the guy next to you.

1841 Examiner 11 Dec. 785/3 Upon such occasions there is always a propensity to the misbestowal of praise, which wears a false air of generosity.

a1866 J. Grote Treat. Moral Ideals (1876) 133 The misbestowal of love..does of course do much harm.

1879 F. G. Lee Church under Q. Elizabeth I (1880) I. p. xxii Loose expressions..and a mis-bestowal of the marks of the One Catholic Body..cannot be sufficiently reprehended.

1927–9 H. Wheeler Waverley Children's Dict. V. 2785 To give alone to a rich man is a misbestowal,..or wrong giving of money.

1640 D. Featley et al. Θρηνοικος xvii. 360 Cursed be thy misbestowed labour thou dissembling hypocrite.

1641 J. Milton Animadversions 34 The misbestowed wealth which they were cheated of.

a1765 E. Young Compl. Wks. (1854) II. 14 Another's treasure we possess, And charge the gods with favours misbestow'd.

1837 A. W. Fonblanque Eng. under Seven Admin. II. 307 It were better to content ourselves with securities against future malversation than to scrutinize and revoke the misbestowed rewards of the State for years past.

1868 Daily News 18 Feb. 4 The absence of any opportunity of enjoying at the Bar the precedence conferred does not render such misbestowed honours merely a harmless indulgence to perverted vanity.