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
They also cloud and misguide, often creating false — but powerful and entrenched — impressions that can outweigh more objective measures.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 21, 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
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
Let not dreams misguide nor any visions wrong you: That which has been, it is now as it was then.
From A Midsummer Holiday and Other Poems by Algernon Charles Swinburne
Being so empathetic toward one set of people that you are blinded to everyone else, she has written, “isn’t just misguided, it’s evil.”
From Salon ● Oct. 29, 2026
Summers has said he was “deeply ashamed” and took “full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating” with Epstein.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
Fans loved Dunder Mifflin’s misguided regional manager Michael Scott in “The Office,” but Carell never felt the love from the academy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026
"Judging a military deployment by whether it has solved a political crisis that, by definition, it cannot solve, would be misguided," Eledinov said.
From Barron's ● Sep. 1, 2026
The prosecutor argued that Herbert was not just tragically misguided and reckless; he was evil.
From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson
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
Result: potentially terribly misguiding images of events going around the world.
From New York Times ● Feb. 5, 2010
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
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
