misconstrue

verb

mis·con·strue | \ ˌmis-kən-ˈstrü

misconstrued; misconstruing

Definition of misconstrue

1 : to interpret (something, such as a statement or action) wrongly : misinterpret misconstrued her words/meaning/silence He does not want his real name used in the newspaper because even the most innocent statement could be misconstrued here and lead to trouble, he says.— Lynne Duke I instantly turned away, lest he should see and misconstrue my emotion.— Anne Brontë

2 : to misinterpret the meaning, intention, or character of (someone) … it is the post-Vietnam revisionists who have most ironically misconstrued [Herman] Melville.— Frederick Crews … a sad sack whom no one would misconstrue as charming.— Karen Karbo

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Examples of misconstrue in a Sentence

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Decades of behavioral economics research and shelves of popular literature have by now convinced us that the human mind is beset by cognitive biases, leading us to misunderstand the past, misconstrue the present and badly foresee the future. — David A. Shaywitz, WSJ, "‘Farsighted’ Review: How to Make Up Your Mind," 11 Sep. 2018 Some state officials say the Russian attacks that made news in 2016 were misconstrued, and perhaps exaggerated, because federal officials failed to say quickly and clearly what was going on. — Michael Wines, New York Times, "State Officials Say They Are Told Too Little About Election Threats," 19 Feb. 2018 Observers also note that Kavanaugh appears to have intentionally misconstrued components of his yearbook that could cast him in a negative light. — Emily Stewart, Vox, "Everything that’s happened since the Ford-Kavanaugh hearing, explained," 2 Oct. 2018 Pete was recently accused by fans of being insensitive to Ariana's grandparents when a comment on Ariana's Instagram was misconstrued. — Claire Dodson, Teen Vogue, "Pete Davidson Deletes All of His Instagram Posts," 23 July 2018 But Besh believes Reveal misconstrued the intent of those methods. — Sean O'kane, The Verge, "Tesla’s on-site health clinic accused of undercounting worker injuries," 6 Nov. 2018 Unfortunately, Shapiro finds that people sometimes misconstrue models' motivations. — Alina Cohen, Marie Claire, "6 Nude Models on What It's Like to Constantly Get Naked in Front of Scrutinizing Strangers," 2 June 2017 The three shared an unusual relationship, one that young Jennifer misconstrued. — Sara Aridi, New York Times, "What’s on TV Saturday: ‘The Tale’ and ‘From Here to Eternity’," 26 May 2018 Although the two fields do not share an abundance of similarities, both pro wrestling and pro fighting are team sports often misconstrued as individual endeavors. — Justin Barrasso, SI.com, "For CM Punk, Defamation Trial Proved to Be a Blessing in Disguise for UFC 225 Training," 7 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'misconstrue.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.