misconstrue

verb

mis·con·strue ˌmis-kən-ˈstrü

misconstrued; misconstruing

Synonyms of misconstrue next

transitive verb

: to interpret (something, such as a statement or action) wrongly : misinterpret

misconstrued her words/meaning/silence

He does not want his real name used in the newspaper because even the most innocent statement could be misconstrued here and lead to trouble, he says.—

Lynne Duke

I instantly turned away, lest he should see and misconstrue my emotion.—

Anne Brontë

: to misinterpret the meaning, intention, or character of (someone)

… it is the post-Vietnam revisionists who have most ironically misconstrued [Herman] Melville.—

Frederick Crews

… a sad sack whom no one would misconstrue as charming.—

Karen Karbo

Examples of misconstrue in a Sentence

claimed that the press had misconstrued her comments

Recent Examples on the Web

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.

The show doesn’t shy away from depicting homophobia — in season one, Sam’s more conservative sister Tricia takes down a rainbow display in her shop when Sam teases that it could be misconstrued as endorsing Pride. —

Rebecca Alter, Vulture, 24 Oct. 2024 Chief Keef: Almighty So 2 The stopwatch started on rap’s postmodern era with Chief Keef’s Almighty So, released in late 2013—an obscure-sounding record misconstrued in its own time, whose intuitive style would inform just about every major rap trend in the decade to come. —

Pitchfork, 3 Dec. 2024 Perhaps Starboard could do without the occasional asides about removing CEOs at other companies, which ended up getting misquoted and misconstrued into highly disrespectful, unwarranted, and premature calls for Bourla’s removal. —

Owen Tripp, Fortune, 24 Oct. 2024 Bowen Yang has no time for his words to be misconstrued. —

Julia Moore, People.com, 30 Sep. 2024 See all Example Sentences for misconstrue