misbehave
Americanverb (used without object)
-
misbehaves,
present (3rd person singular)
-
misbehaved,
past participle, past
-
misbehaving
present participle
verb (used with object)
-
misbehaves,
present (3rd person singular)
-
misbehaved,
past participle, past
-
misbehaving
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
misbehavesimple
-
misbehavessimple
-
have misbehavedperfect
-
has misbehavedperfect
-
am misbehavingprogressive
-
are misbehavingprogressive
-
is misbehavingprogressive
-
have been misbehavingperfect progressive
-
has been misbehavingperfect progressive
Past
-
misbehavedsimple
-
had misbehavedperfect
-
was misbehavingprogressive
-
were misbehavingprogressive
-
had been misbehavingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of misbehave
late Middle English word dating back to 1425–75; see origin at mis- 1, behave
Explanation
When you misbehave, you do something bad. One way to misbehave would be to stand on the roof of your house and throw water balloons at people walking by. Kids are probably most often said to misbehave, although adults misbehave at least as often. A bank executive, for example, might misbehave by embezzling money, and a politician misbehaves when she lies under oath. The meaning of the word is clear once you know that the prefix mis- means "bad or wrong," from Old English. When you combine it with behave, you get bad behavior.
Vocabulary lists containing misbehave
List 5
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He explained that he was concerned that adults would misbehave.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026
The saga began in 2021, when WP lawmaker Raeesah Khan claimed in parliament that she had witnessed police misbehave towards a sexual assault victim.
From BBC ● Jan. 15, 2026
Prodigy City is located in what was formerly Thailand, where the series was filmed, giving every character, human and otherwise, plenty of space to hide and misbehave.
From Salon ● Aug. 5, 2025
When government lawyers misbehave, federal judges must be more assertive in the exercise of their powers as members of the judicial branch and as integral players in disciplinary mechanisms of the legal profession.
From Slate ● Mar. 17, 2025
It was risky to misbehave even a little bit, since our teacher was quite willing to tell our parents.
From "The Boy on the Wooden Box" by Leon Leyson
If a professor in the English department misbehaves, they do not banish all English professors.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2026
The act also says anyone who “shamefully casts away his arms, ammunition, tools, or equipment or misbehaves in such manner as to show cowardice in the presence of the enemy” faces the same penalty.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 24, 2024
In addition, he said he wanted to see an end to Section 21 evictions, which occur when a tenant misbehaves or the landlord wishes to stop renting.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2022
In addition to lights, you can even set one up to do something handy like remotely power-cycling your home router when it inevitably misbehaves — even without having to get up from the couch.
From The Verge ● Jun. 24, 2022
"The poor fellow can't open his mouth without your saying that he misbehaves himself."
From The Landleaguers by Anthony Trollope
In 1934, Alcatraz opened as an official federal prison for men who had made escape attempts from other federal prisons, or otherwise misbehaved.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 5, 2025
“And on a day like today, even when the car has misbehaved for the majority of the season, everyone tried to put the A game, and it was just an historical day for the team.”
From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2024
The latest developments in the ongoing tribal dispute come on the heels of the backlash Noem faced for writing about killing a hunting dog that misbehaved in her latest book.
From Seattle Times ● May 11, 2024
They also said Mr. Crumbley, now 17, had misbehaved in jail, calling “into question whether this defendant can ever be rehabilitated.”
From New York Times ● Jul. 27, 2023
Mate flinched as if she knew she had misbehaved.
From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez
The incident, which Anthropic uncovered more than two months after it happened in July, illustrates the variety of sometimes unexpected ways misbehaving agents can cause trouble.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026
A top lawmaker from Australia's far-right One Nation party has grabbed headlines after exploding at a misbehaving dog as he was grilled on live TV.
From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026
Once I was taking the kids to SeaWorld and they were misbehaving in the car.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 4, 2026
"It can come across as acting out or misbehaving, but it isn't acting out or misbehaving. It's just literally not feeling safe in their own body."
From BBC ● Feb. 17, 2026
Write and tell me how the littles are misbehaving and where you are applying to college and whether you have found true love.
From "We Were Liars" by E. Lockhart
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
