misconduct
Americannoun
-
improper or wrong behavior.
Numerous accusations of sexual misconduct have blighted his campaign.
Her license was revoked for professional misconduct and poor professional performance.
- Synonyms:
- misstep, misdeed, misbehavior, wrongdoing
-
unlawful behavior by an official in regard to their office, or by a person in the administration of justice, such as a lawyer, witness, or juror; malfeasance.
A complaint was filed against the prosecutor, alleging misconduct in the case.
verb (used with object)
-
misconducts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
misconducted,
past participle, past
-
misconducting
present participle
-
to mismanage.
-
to misbehave (oneself ).
noun
verb
-
to conduct (oneself) in such a way
-
to manage (something) badly
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
misconductsimple
-
misconductssimple
-
have misconductedperfect
-
has misconductedperfect
-
am misconductingprogressive
-
are misconductingprogressive
-
is misconductingprogressive
-
have been misconductingperfect progressive
-
has been misconductingperfect progressive
Past
-
misconductedsimple
-
had misconductedperfect
-
was misconductingprogressive
-
were misconductingprogressive
-
had been misconductingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of misconduct
Explanation
Misconduct is any kind of bad, unethical, or illegal activity. When there's misconduct, someone is doing something wrong. Since conduct is behavior, misconduct is behavior that's not quite right: some kind of shady or criminal conduct. If an accountant cooked the books — lied about finances — that's misconduct. A police officer taking a bribe is guilty of misconduct. Often, misconduct specifically refers to someone who does improper things on behalf of someone else, like the misconduct of a dishonest lawyer.
Vocabulary lists containing misconduct
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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:
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said the state’s system for identifying and responding to potential misconduct functioned as intended.
From Salon ● Oct. 31, 2026
The campaign puts clergy, veterans, teachers and other volunteers at voting stations where they will explain voting rights, try to de-escalate confrontations and document intimidation or other misconduct.
From Barron's ● Oct. 27, 2026
Permitting selected claims to be heard there instead of in Finra’s cheaper forum—as the regulator’s questions for public comment contemplate—would hamper investors’ ability to recover big losses, especially from flagrant fraud or misconduct.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026
Ferbert and others pointed to a surge in lawsuits against municipalities over everything from sidewalk trip-and-falls to police misconduct — cases that can lead to seven- or eight-figure payouts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 23, 2026
He didn't have any juvenile criminal history—no prior arrests, no misconduct in school, no delinquencies or prior court appearances.
From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson
Neither front has seen much improvement for the Panthers, who took 14 penalties, including six misconducts and another for abuse of officials in the blowout loss.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 6, 2023
Both hits resulted in game misconducts, but it didn’t appear further punishment was coming for Lomberg the way it came for Oleksiak.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 13, 2022
“However,” she said, “the system that has allowed these misconducts remains.”
From New York Times ● Apr. 29, 2022
All three Florida goals were of the gritty variety from inside the crease, on a night where tempers flared with 19 penalties — four of them misconducts.
From Fox News ● Mar. 4, 2022
"It is impossible that any one should be happy who misconducts herself."
From Marion Fay by Anthony Trollope
T.—Is probably Tallien, who had misconducted himself in Egypt.
From Napoleon's Letters to Josephine by Henry Foljambe Hall
I myself only saw Lady Rose once, so far as I remember, before she misconducted herself.
From Lady Rose's Daughter by Mrs. Humphry Ward
"Nechutes has misconducted himself," she objected, "and I would not be left alone with him."
From The Yoke A Romance of the Days when the Lord Redeemed the Children of Israel from the Bondage of Egypt by Elizabeth Miller
“She protested that she had not misconducted herself.”
From The Divorce of Catherine of Aragon The Story as Told by the Imperial Ambassadors Resident at the Court of Henry VIII by J.A. Froude
The practice of compelling girls who had misconducted themselves to stand in church for three Sundays was only given up at Pickering in the first quarter of the nineteenth century.
From The Evolution of an English Town by Gordon Home
If that's agreed, detectives will then look for evidence that the incident in question saw the suspect "wilfully" neglecting to perform their duty or wilfully misconducting themselves in some other way.
From BBC ● Feb. 19, 2026
Tilt, 31, pleaded guilty at Birmingham Crown Court to wilfully misconducting himself in public office.
From BBC ● Dec. 14, 2022
Tilt, of Barley Green, Birmingham, admitted wilfully misconducting himself in public office at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday.
From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2022
Thus a lot of people are misconducting themselves like this, and would enjoy programming that makes them feel represented in the media.
From New York Times ● Nov. 29, 2017
They followed because, learning that James was going to Perth, they guessed that he intended to apprehend the Master of Oliphant, who had been misconducting himself in Angus.
From James VI and the Gowrie Mystery by Andrew Lang
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
