Definition of "be amiss" [be amiss]

• Interpret in the wrong way (verb)

WordNet. Princeton University. 2010.

• "Tho 'my business here may not let me write to you every week yet it will not be amiss for you to enquire at the office every week. wrote to Mr. House by the last post."
• "We step through to discover far more gracious surroundings—polished tables set with comfortable, high-backed chairs such as would not be amiss in my own chambers, fresh rushes on the floor, the warm glow of beeswax candles, and—most startling of all—several alcoves containing low platforms heaped with pillows that to my eye appear garishly foreign."
• "‘Now before I quit Calais,’ a travel-writer would say, ‘it would not be amiss to give some account of it.’ —"