misguided

adjective mis·guid·ed \ (ˌ)mis-ˈgī-dəd \

Updated on: 24 Apr 2018

Definition of misguided

: led or prompted by wrong or inappropriate motives or ideals

well-meaning but misguided do-gooders

—

misguidedly

play \-lē\ adverb

—

misguidedness

play \-nəs\ noun

See misguided defined for English-language learners

Examples of misguided in a Sentence

She's been getting a lot of bad advice from misguided friends.
He blames the crisis on the government's misguided economic policies.
a misguided attempt to help

Recent Examples of misguided from the Web

One irony is that the left says work requirements are misguided because most recipients already work.

— the editorial board, WSJ, "Working on Food Stamps," 11 Apr. 2018
If not for Jose Pirela's baserunning gaffe — a misguided attempt to stretch his two-RBI double into a triple — the damage against McCullers would have increased.

— chandler rome, Houston Chronicle, "Lance McCullers, Astros fall to Padres for first home loss of season," 6 Apr. 2018
One of the ways in which this editorial was misguided was in its assumption that only liberals had ideological criteria for a president.

— jonathan chait, Daily Intelligencer, "The Final Surrender of Anti-Trump Conservatism," 30 Mar. 2018
Phil's publicity team argued that the warrant was a misguided attempt to blame the messenger rather than Mother Nature.

— david montero, latimes.com, "How do you know it's springtime in Vegas? By waiting for Mojave Max to emerge," 29 Mar. 2018
Poor crowd management has led to tragedies like the Hillsborough stampede of 1989, when 96 people died and more than 700 were injured in a misguided attempt to lock hoards of fans in a soccer stadium into pens.

— sy mukherjee, Fortune, "Brainstorm Health: The Science of Super Bowl Riots, Intarcia Setback, Sanofi Dengue Lawsuit," 5 Feb. 2018
Governments slow to release information—or quick to impose draconian, ineffective methods in misguided attempts to control the spread of a disease—would also undermine a pandemic response.

— Smithsonian, "The Pandemic Everyone Fears Is Flu In the Wrong Place At the Wrong Time," 30 Jan. 2018
But your trust might be misguided, according to a new study.

— emma yasinski, Science | AAAS, "Clinical trials may be based on flimsy animal data," 5 Apr. 2018
But blaming the Forest Service’s practices solely for our current problem—as many people do—is misguided, Hansen writes.

— tracy ross, Outside Online, "We're Entering an Era of Mega-Fire," 29 Mar. 2018

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

First Known Use of misguided

1500

in the meaning defined above

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MISGUIDED Defined for English Language Learners

misguided

adjective

Definition of misguided for English Language Learners

: having wrong or improper goals or values
: resulting from wrong or improper goals or values

MISGUIDED Defined for Kids

misguided

adjective mis·guid·ed \ mis-ˈgī-dəd \

Definition of misguided for Students

: having or resulting from mistaken ideas or values

misguided advisers

a misguided attempt

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See words that rhyme with misguided Spanish Central: Translation of misguided Nglish: Translation of misguided for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of misguided for Arabic speakers

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misguidedly

misguidedness

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misguided

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misguided

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