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
Plus, both Kenzari and costar Luca Marinelli couldn't stop laughing at the bloody prosthetic thumb, which misbehaved.
—
EW.com, 1 July 2025
The European Union’s AI legislation focuses primarily on how humans use AI models, not on preventing the models themselves from misbehaving.
—Thomas Urbain, Fortune, 29 June 2025
This may seem like a benign application, but the fear was that an LLM might misbehave under certain circumstances – even to the point of committing malicious behavior in violation of direct orders – despite just handling messages.
—David Szondy
june 28, New Atlas, 28 June 2025
Nationwide data show Black students are four times more likely than their white peers to be suspended from school, despite multiple studies indicating Black children are not more likely to misbehave than white children.
—Rebecca Noel, Charlotte Observer, 18 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for misbehave
EW.com, 1 July 2025
The European Union’s AI legislation focuses primarily on how humans use AI models, not on preventing the models themselves from misbehaving.
—Thomas Urbain, Fortune, 29 June 2025
This may seem like a benign application, but the fear was that an LLM might misbehave under certain circumstances – even to the point of committing malicious behavior in violation of direct orders – despite just handling messages.
—David Szondy
june 28, New Atlas, 28 June 2025
Nationwide data show Black students are four times more likely than their white peers to be suspended from school, despite multiple studies indicating Black children are not more likely to misbehave than white children.
—Rebecca Noel, Charlotte Observer, 18 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for misbehave
Recent Examples of Synonyms for misbehave
Verb
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Hamas has called on residents of Gaza City to disobey the evacuation order.—
Brady Knox,
The Washington Examiner,
8 Sep. 2025
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Fischer faces charges of first-degree reckless endangerment, interfering with an officer, reckless driving, disobeying traffic control signals, failure to drive in the proper lane, disobeying the signal of an officer, failure to display plates and engaging police in a pursuit.—
Justin Muszynski,
Hartford Courant,
18 Aug. 2025
Verb
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Qi is more interested in how Chuan’s motherhood is affected — and what happens when Hsiao-Lee is confident enough to rebel against her mom.—
Adam Solomons,
IndieWire,
4 Sep. 2025
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An essay in The Dartmouth Review argues that the toga parties (based very much on truth) represented students from Miller's generation rebelling against conformity.—
Jordan Hoffman,
EW.com,
1 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Misbehave.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/misbehave. Accessed 13 Sep. 2025.
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