misbehaving 1 of 2

adjective

as in naughty
engaging in or marked by childish misbehavior a new approach for disciplining a chronically misbehaving child

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misbehaving

2 of 2

verb

present participle of misbehave
as in disobeying
to behave badly scolded the children for misbehaving and sent them to bed early

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of misbehaving
Adjective
Why must members of the public be disrespected by unruly, misbehaving, noisy children, who are then defended by adults who should know better? — Judith Martin, Mercury News, 1 Dec. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for misbehaving
  1. naughty
  2. disobeying
  3. mischievous
  4. rebelling
  5. bad
Adjective
  • When Martín is kidnapped by a monster, Cleo ventures into the jungle to rescue him, aided by an elderly witch and a naughty anteater.
    — Christopher Vourlias, Variety, 9 July 2026
  • People would hang from windows, encouraging you to do naughty things, and my thumb has never been sorer from back-and-forth gestures.
    — Matthew MacConnell, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026
Definition of naughty
Verb
  • Santana-Mateo was booked on charges of breach of peace, engaging police in a pursuit, disobeying the direction of officer, reckless driving, failure to obey a stop sign, failure to drive right, failure to obey a traffic control signal and driving the wrong way on a one way.
    — Staff Report, Hartford Courant, 17 June 2026
  • Icarus disobeying his father Daedalus and flying too close to the sun.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 26 May 2026
Definition of disobeying
Adjective
  • Advertisement Best of all is Deutch’s Gail, whose sunbeam demeanor barely conceals her flirty, mischievous side.
    — Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 10 July 2026
  • The actress, 64, made her mark on the iconic ‘70s show as Nellie Oleson, Laura Ingalls’ mischievous classmate.
    — Yamillah Hurtado, PEOPLE, 10 July 2026
Definition of mischievous
Verb
  • The common narrative is fixated upon 1776, the 13 rebelling Colonies and the bold military actions of Founding Fathers such as George Washington.
    — Sarah M.S. Pearsall, The Conversation, 2 July 2026
  • Years later, Billie keeps on rebelling – against everything.
    — Marta Balaga, Variety, 26 June 2026
Definition of rebelling
Adjective
  • Shouldn’t Tamra take that as a sign to repair her relationships with the women rather than alienate the one person who is willing to look past her bad behavior?
    — Brian Moylan, Vulture, 17 July 2026
  • That statistic shows that hotels did worse with the World Cup than without it initially.
    — Miami Herald, Miami Herald, 17 July 2026
Definition of bad

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Cite this Entry

“Misbehaving.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/misbehaving. Accessed 18 Jul. 2026.

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Nglish: Translation of misbehaving for Spanish Speakers

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