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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mis-
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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:
They also allow researchers to share ideas and investigate why AI systems misbehave.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 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
Even amoral or timorous lawyers will hesitate to misbehave if it becomes clear that doing so endangers their livelihood.
From Slate ● Mar. 17, 2025
The school asks parents to come into lessons and sit next to their child if they misbehave in class.
From BBC ● Feb. 17, 2025
The twins were horribly jealous to hear Baby Max praised by their mother, and decided to misbehave out of spite.
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
Forty-seven years later, we see artificial intelligence making such decisions with too little thought from the humans who will likely have to accept the financial fallout if the model misbehaves.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
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
Facebook and Google must answer to new cops on the beat – a group of five fresh Washington regulators at the Federal Trade Commission who have the power to punish Silicon Valley if it misbehaves.
From Seattle Times ● May 4, 2018
"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
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
She and other protesters also said that some coaches had misbehaved with athletes and criticised the WFI's functioning.
From BBC ● Apr. 28, 2023
Fans flooded the field, tore down a goal post, ripped up chunks of turf and misbehaved as if transported to joy long denied.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 28, 2023
For three days straight, every time I or another boy misbehaved, we had to go over there and chop wood.
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
Alternative-discipline proponents stress that restorative justice means school officials must no longer deliver consequences to misbehaving students; instead, they must explore restoration with them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 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
There has always been salacious gossip about the royal family, and misbehaving royals, but this time it felt much worse.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025
Local resentment is rising, with social media vigilantes putting misbehaving tourists on blast - even as the Balinese maintain their world-famous hospitality.
From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2025
And for a third thing, both Ms. Mac and Mrs. Brisbane sometimes threatened to send a misbehaving student to Mr. Morales’s office.
From "The World According to Humphrey" by Betty G. Birney
Definitions 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.
