Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Date: 1300-1400
Language: Old Norse
Origin: mistaka

mistake

2 verb
     
mistake2 past tense mistook past participle mistaken [transitive]
1 to understand something wrongly:
She mistook my meaning entirely.
Ken mistook her concern, thinking she was interested in him for another reason.
2

you can't mistake somebody/something

used to say that someone or something is very easy to recognize:
You can't mistake her. She's the one with the long red hair.
3

there is no mistaking somebody/something

used to say that you are certain about something:
There's no mistaking whose children they are - they all look just like Joe.

mistake somebody/something for somebody/something

phrasal verb
to wrongly think that one person or thing is someone or something else:
A woman mistook him for a well-known actor, and asked him for his autograph.
The doctor mistook the symptoms for blood poisoning.
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.
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