as in naughty
engaging in or marked by childish misbehavior
a new approach for disciplining a chronically misbehaving child
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in disobeying
to behave badly
scolded the children for misbehaving and sent them to bed early
Synonyms & Similar Words
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
Judith Martin, Mercury News, 1 Dec. 2025
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
Adjective
-
The play was naughty stuff in 1925, when the show, starring Tallulah Bankhead, got banned.—
Sheldon Pearce,
New Yorker,
15 May 2026
-
But theatergoers around me couldn’t seem to get enough, no matter how repetitive the naughty humor became.—
Theater Critic,
Los Angeles Times,
1 May 2026
Verb
-
Jakubowski faces charges of second-degree reckless endangerment, risk of injury to a minor, reckless driving, interfering with an officer, improper use of maker plates, possession of drug paraphernalia, disobeying the signal of an officer and failure to maintain the proper lane.—
Justin Muszynski,
Hartford Courant,
29 May 2026
-
Icarus disobeying his father Daedalus and flying too close to the sun.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
26 May 2026
Adjective
-
His mustache is graying, but his eyes remain mischievous.—
Charles Bethea,
New Yorker,
1 June 2026
-
On May 27, Netflix announced that Willa Dunn will take on the role of Nellie Oleson — Laura Ingalls’ mischievous, pot-stirring classmate — in the forthcoming Little House on the Prairie revival.—
Rachel Raposas,
PEOPLE,
28 May 2026
Verb
-
The teenagers were rebelling, like teenagers are supposed to.—
Rob Picheta,
CNN Money,
28 May 2026
-
After rebelling against the authority of the Jade Emperor (the supreme deity in traditional Chinese cosmology), he is subdued by the Buddha and imprisoned beneath the Five Elements Mountain.—
Frannie Comstock,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
26 May 2026
Adjective
-
But that’s made even worse by the fact that a significant portion of these observational studies did not even have a comparison group.—
Ian Miller OutKick,
FOXNews.com,
1 June 2026
-
The views over the city aren’t bad either.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
1 June 2026
Cite this Entry
“Misbehaving.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/misbehaving. Accessed 8 Jun. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
