misbehavior
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of misbehavior
Explanation
When you do something wrong or bad, that's misbehavior. If your little brother hides your homework, intentionally dumps his cereal on the floor, and draws on the walls with permanent marker, you might say he's an expert in misbehavior. Whether an activity is mere naughtiness or more significant misconduct, it all falls under the category of misbehavior. When a politician pays someone to stay quiet about his misbehavior, he's added additional misbehavior to the record. If you know that behavior means the way you act, it's easy to see what happens when you add the prefix mis-, meaning "bad".
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.
Then the pandemic hit, and as kids navigated tough situations at home, isolation, more screen time and school closures, misbehavior got worse.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 17, 2026
Some states are taking a different approach to misbehavior, saying that the answer is to bring in more consequences and give teachers more power to punish disruptive students.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 17, 2026
It’s foolish to think Turkish misbehavior would be limited to these countries.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 7, 2026
The tuna bonds were among a series of costly legal battles and probes over banker misbehavior at Credit Suisse in its final years.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 1, 2025
For certain types of misbehavior, social incentives are terribly powerful.
From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt
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.
