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Her license was revoked for professional misconduct and poor professional performance.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:
The departures of these women isn’t because none of the administration’s men have been implicated in misconduct or corrupt dealings.
From Salon ● Oct. 17, 2026
SafeSport, a non-profit established to prevent the abuse of athletes and and address misconduct allegations, was dismissed as a defendant in two lawsuits filed by gymnasts that allege the organization did not properly investigate Gardner.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2026
Richardson was pulled from the competition on Monday amid allegations of misconduct.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
Police are investigating 18 alleged cases of misconduct within their ranks.
From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2026
And she continues, after a few more sentences, that the sum of the misconduct of Reggie and his allies enabled Reggie to go on a mission, which could somehow protect him from justice.
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
They took four penalties in the first 50-plus minutes of the game and then many more, including three misconducts, in a late scuffle.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 4, 2023
“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
Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby and coach Mike Sullivan were among a group that earned 10-minute misconducts following a dust-up between both sides late in the third period.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 21, 2019
I simply register the inevitable sentence of the husband upon the wife who misconducts herself!
From Dolly Reforming Herself A Comedy in Four Acts by Henry Arthur Jones
One of these was Trebonius, who had misconducted himself in Spain, and was smarting under the recollection of his own failures.
From Caesar: a Sketch by James Anthony Froude
It is usual when any member has misconducted himself, to appoint a small committee to visit the offender, to endeavour to convince him of his error and induce him to forsake it.
From Christian Sects in the Nineteenth Century by Caroline Frances Cornwallis
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
She has never misconducted herself; and what is more, she has been cruelly used since she came home.”
From The Claverings by Anthony Trollope
You know as well as I do, that unless you had misconducted yourself, you might have been as happy now as you were when I saw you after your return from Bury.
From The History of Margaret Catchpole A Suffolk Girl by Richard Cobbold
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
However flagrantly I had now been misconducting myself, I had a large balance of gratitude to draw upon.
From Works of Lucian of Samosata — Volume 02 by F. G. (Francis George) Fowler
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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.
