“+ noun
Etymology: Middle English mesaventure, mesadventure, misaventure, from Old French mesaventure, from mesavenir to chance badly, happen badly (from mes- mis- (I) + avenir to chance, happen, from Latin advenire to come to), after Old French avenir : aventure adventure — more at advene , adventure
1.
a. : calamitous misfortune : disaster
a record of misadventure by shipwreck — Times Literary Supplement
especially : a piece of bad luck : mishap
his marital misadventures (his first wife was a prostitute, his second a shrew) — G.N.Ray
b. law : an accident that causes serious injury or death to a human being and that does not involve negligence, wrongful purpose, or unlawful conduct
a verdict of death by misadventure
2. : a minor and sometimes ridiculous mishap : blunder
this happy-souled and sometimes uproarious book … belongs to the domestic misadventure school — Time
his misadventures as a young immigrant in search of an unknown uncle — Wallace Markfield