misguide
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of misguide
1325–75; mis- 1 + guide; replacing Middle English misgien; see guy 2
Explanation
When you misguide someone, you lead them the wrong way. You might accidentally misguide a tourist by instructing him to turn left when he should have gone right. Use the verb misguide when you point someone in the wrong direction, either literally or in a figurative way: "I didn't mean to misguide you when I promised you'd love camping in the desert." Giving bad advice is one way to misguide someone, and giving bad driving directions is another. In the fourteenth century, misguide meant "to go astray," rather than "to lead someone else astray."
Vocabulary lists containing misguide
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:
As expectations about what these products should detect increase, so too do the opportunities to let them misguide us and cause us to punish or profile innocent people.
From Slate ● Dec. 11, 2023
“The agents guide the people, or misguide them, into going illegally,” Anil Pratham, director of the anti-human trafficking unit of the Gujarat police, said in a telephone interview.
From New York Times ● Mar. 14, 2022
Don’t let the instant success stories of the past decade misguide you.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 30, 2021
The words lingered as he drove me home in silence, forming the genesis of a mantra that would frequently misguide me as I transformed myself into an Everything But Girl.
From Salon ● Feb. 10, 2013
It proceeds through the air in a series of efforts and ups-and-downs, and its long tail seems perpetually to threaten to misguide it into collapse.
From The Pleasures of Ignorance by Robert Lynd
The war in Iraq was a tragically misguided venture that tested the Western alliance more than 20 years ago.
From Salon ● Sep. 17, 2026
Recent calls from artificial-intelligence leaders to slow the technology’s development have rippled through the stock market — and Wall Street’s early reactions may be misguided.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026
In the weeks leading up to the first Super Bowl at SoFi, there were misguided rumblings that the game might be moved to Dallas, because the NFL had secured that city as a backup.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2026
In such an environment, making firm-level ROI the primary measure of success is misguided; worse, it risks obscuring why firms must invest in AI at all.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026
“We are not taking her at all, my poor, misguided girl,” Gherland said in his most patient voice.
From "The Girl Who Drank the Moon" by Kelly Barnhill
“I mean, we don’t do modeling like that. This is misguiding people.”
From New York Times ● Sep. 14, 2021
Hamilton said: "It is unacceptable, cowardly and misguiding for those in power to suggest such a law."
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2021
PSG players celebrated with enthusiasm in front of their fans but the exuberance was somewhat misplaced and also misguiding.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 19, 2016
We all feel as if we have been entirely by-passed and badly misled and in so being have been misguiding those who have sought and heeded our advice.
From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2011
The misguided ideas of a misguided leader who in turn was misguiding his army and his people.
From "The Light in Hidden Places" by Sharon Cameron
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.
