misdirect
Americanverb (used with object)
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misdirects,
present (3rd person singular)
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misdirected,
past participle, past
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misdirecting
present participle
verb
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to give (a person) wrong directions or instructions
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to address (a letter, parcel, etc) wrongly
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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misdirectsimple
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misdirectssimple
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have misdirectedperfect
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has misdirectedperfect
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am misdirectingprogressive
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are misdirectingprogressive
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is misdirectingprogressive
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have been misdirectingperfect progressive
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has been misdirectingperfect progressive
Past
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misdirectedsimple
-
had misdirectedperfect
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was misdirectingprogressive
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were misdirectingprogressive
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had been misdirectingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of misdirect
Vocabulary lists containing misdirect
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 said Mr Justice Bright did misdirect the jury about the waiver, but only on it being potentially "decisive" if it were a civil trial instead of a criminal one.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
We can’t afford to let the banks misdirect us again.
From Slate ● Mar. 22, 2024
We can misdirect in a way that what you’re seeing is science fiction or about AI, but that’s not really what it is at all.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 6, 2023
We wouldn't put it past the artist to have effected a misdirect about anything made public, which would be just another opportunity to make a subversive statement.
From Salon ● Nov. 23, 2023
“Somehow we think it is funny to misdirect people and we don’t smile when we do it, but we laugh inwardly. It is our nature.”
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
Mick and Veronica are interesting protagonists with a complex, compelling relationship, and the antagonist, who is revealed near the end of the novel after a series of hints and misdirects, is genuinely terrifying.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 29, 2021
My brother and I worked really hard in the writing to answer all the questions for ourselves, but then to create all these misdirects for the audience.
From The Verge ● Oct. 18, 2019
As my colleague Amanda Marcotte explains, signs and prophesies in this series are misdirects more often than they end up amounting to substantive outcomes.
From Salon ● May 2, 2019
The Colts were not going to trade that pick, and despite Jim Irsay’s misdirects, they weren’t going to take Griffin.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 20, 2012
A writer misdirects his talent if he lowers his standard of excellence.
From The Principles of Success in Literature by George Henry Lewes
Today’s critique of land power isn’t entirely wrong, but it is misdirected.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 3, 2026
If AI was used, he argued that the key question is "how old was the data" used for the targeting, and whether the misdirected strike stemmed from "a database error".
From Barron's ● Mar. 7, 2026
By the time couples notice, the pressure is already there, and it often gets misdirected at each other.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 20, 2026
Rather than reflecting a loss of control due to runaway habits, some compulsive behaviors may result from excessive, though misdirected, deliberate control.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 16, 2026
By then we knew that all my previous fuss about the importance of Mg++ ions was misdirected.
From "Double Helix" by James D. Watson
Furious, Strowger blamed the operators for misdirecting calls meant for him to his competitors, and set about inventing a bias-free, electromechanical machine to replace them.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 26, 2024
As Elizabeth asks questions of Gracie, she is fishing for insights into her character — and Gracie may be withholding or even misdirecting.
From Salon ● Dec. 1, 2023
And although it’s unclear just how useful these practices are, they take over inboxes, invade consumer privacy and run the risk of misdirecting police officers’ time and attention.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 11, 2023
In a 2013 lawsuit, Harry accused Daniel of misdirecting $6.5 million in corporate funds “for the purpose of advancing the international cart racing activities” of his sons, Logan and Dalton; that litigation was eventually settled.
From New York Times ● May 13, 2023
But Kronos was always fooling us, misdirecting our attention.
From "The Last Olympian" by Rick Riordan
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.
