Emily Dickinson Lexicon

MIS-TAKE, v.t.

1. To take wrong; to conceive or understand erroneously; to misunderstand or misapprehend. 'Tis to mistake them costs the time and pain. Pope.
2. To take one thing or person for another. We mistake the eloquence of self-apology for the animation of conscious integrity. Buckminster. A man may mistake the love of virtue for the practice of it. Johnson.