as in to disobey
to behave badly
scolded the children for misbehaving and sent them to bed early
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Recent Examples of misbehave
Stevie wasn’t misbehaving or even playing with toys to occupy herself.
—
Alyce Collins, MSNBC Newsweek, 5 Dec. 2025
Several recent studies have shown that artificial-intelligence agents sometimes decide to misbehave, for instance by attempting to blackmail people who plan to replace them.
—Matthew Hutson, IEEE Spectrum, 25 Nov. 2025
This can lead to stress, perfectionist tendencies, and feeling not good enough when the other sibs inevitably misbehave.
—Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 3 Oct. 2025
Lawrence is hoping fans of both teams treat it as a special sporting event and do not misbehave.
—Gary Bedore, Kansas City Star, 3 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for misbehave
Alyce Collins, MSNBC Newsweek, 5 Dec. 2025
Several recent studies have shown that artificial-intelligence agents sometimes decide to misbehave, for instance by attempting to blackmail people who plan to replace them.
—Matthew Hutson, IEEE Spectrum, 25 Nov. 2025
This can lead to stress, perfectionist tendencies, and feeling not good enough when the other sibs inevitably misbehave.
—Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 3 Oct. 2025
Lawrence is hoping fans of both teams treat it as a special sporting event and do not misbehave.
—Gary Bedore, Kansas City Star, 3 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for misbehave
Recent Examples of Synonyms for misbehave
Verb
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Kyorkian was booked into the Sonoma County Jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, violation of civil rights (hate crime) and disobeying a court order.—
Tim Fang,
CBS News,
2 Apr. 2026
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State police said Bishop was charged with operating under the influence of alcohol or drugs, reckless driving, disobeying the signal of an officer, evading responsibility, driving the wrong way on a divided highway and first-degree reckless endangerment.—
Justin Muszynski,
Hartford Courant,
1 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Dulla Bhatti belonged to a family of local chiefs who rebelled against the Mughal authority by opposing land revenues and taxes.—
Tamanna Nangia,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
2 Apr. 2026
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The House voted to pass a short-term funding patch for the Department of Homeland Security late Friday night, rebelling against a plan from Senate Republicans that omitted funding for immigration enforcement agencies.—
Rachel Schilke,
The Washington Examiner,
28 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Misbehave.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/misbehave. Accessed 5 Apr. 2026.
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