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# misbehave

«misbehave» in Mova's school dictionary: **to behave badly, to be naughty or not follow the rules** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 3 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

verb (misbehave, misbehaves, misbehaved, misbehaving)

### meaning for a pupil

1) To misbehave means to behave badly, to be naughty or not follow the rules. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/misbehave/#m1)

2) (informal) A machine that misbehaves does not work as it should: "the printer is misbehaving again". [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/misbehave/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In school, pupils who misbehave may lose playtime or be sent to see the head. In stories, misbehaving children and pets cause trouble and fun. Phrases: misbehave in class, misbehaving pupils.

### examples

- If you misbehave, you'll miss break time. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/misbehave/#x1)
- The puppy misbehaved and chewed my shoe. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/misbehave/#x2)
- Two boys misbehaved on the school trip. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/misbehave/#x3)
- My little brother always misbehaves when he's tired. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/misbehave/#x4)
- The computer is misbehaving again. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/misbehave/#x5)
- Nobody misbehaved during the assembly. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/misbehave/#x6)

### note

Noun: misbehaviour (UK) or misbehavior (USA). The prefix mis- means "badly" or "wrongly". It is a slightly formal word; children say "be naughty" or "be bad".

### In the corpora

- [mis- means wrongly: misread, misspell, misbehave.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/12-prefixes-un-dis-mis-re-pre-in-im-il-ir/18/)
- ["Made a bad choice" is teacher jargon for misbehaved.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/14-family-and-behaviour/22/)
- ["Testing boundaries" means misbehaving on purpose to see what is allowed.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/15-behaviour-and-school-reports/10/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «misbehave» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/misbehave/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.