misfile

verb

mis·​file ˌmis-ˈfi(-ə)l 

misfiled; misfiling

transitive verb

: to file (something, such as a document) in the wrong place

… the inaccessibility of information that is being typed, is in the mail, has been misfiled or is simply in an office that is closed for the weekend …

—Vincent E. Giuliano

Considering that an entry misfiled is an item lost, it is good practice to study the structure of any catalog before attempting to file …

—Rosalind E. Miller et al.

One cache of handwritten letters emerged in the New York Public Library, of all places; they had been misfiled under Winston Churchill the American novelist.

—Martin Gilbert

Five- or six-digit numbers often give rise to filing mistakes: for example, a file bearing the number 117111 can easily be misfiled as 111711.

—Elizabeth Shepherd and Geoffrey Yeo

Word History

First Known Use

1912, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

misfile

verb

mis·​file

(ˈ)mis-ˈfī(ə)l

: to file in an incorrect place