misconstrue
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 5++LDOCE 5++mis·con·strue /ˌmɪskənˈstruː/ verb [transitive] formal UNDERSTANDto misunderstand something that someone has said or done 误解 SYN misinterpret His behaviour could easily be misconstrued. 他的行为容易被误解。→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
misconstrue• I wouldn't want it to be misconstrued.• Perversely, the sight set me to wondering if I had written anything that could be misconstrued.• The inherited mythology is garbled, and its guiding value lost or misconstrued.• But he insisted that some of his official acts have been deliberately misconstrued and deeply misunderstood.• It couldn t possibly be misconstrued as a cry for help.• You had a preconceived notion that our neighborhood had problems with diversity and therefore misconstrued comments to fit an agenda.• They knew, from day one, the possibility of causing offence and that their case would be misconstrued in the media.• When your overtures are misconstrued, the prudent course is sometimes to apologise and withdraw.mis·con·strue verbChineseSyllable
misunderstand said that has to someone Corpus something
misconstrue
mis‧con‧strue /ˌmɪskənˈstruː/
verb [transitive] formal
to misunderstand something that someone has said or done
SYN misinterpret:
His behaviour could easily be misconstrued.
▪ misunderstand to think that someone means one thing, when in fact they mean something else: I think you've misunderstood what I'm saying. | Some companies appear to have misunderstood the new rules. | Don't misunderstand me - I have nothing against these people.
▪get somebody/something wrong especially spoken to misunderstand someone or something - used especially in everyday spoken English: Looks like you've got it all wrong. | You've got me all wrong - that's not what I meant. | Tell me if I've got it wrong.
▪mistake to misunderstand someone's intentions, and react in the wrong way: He was a very private man, and some people mistook this for unfriendliness. | I thought she wanted us to leave her alone, but I may been mistaken.
▪misread/misjudge to wrongly believe that someone’s actions show that they have a particular opinion or feeling, or that a situation means that you should behave in particular way: The party completely misread the mood of the voters at the last election. | Eddie wondered if he should be scared, too. Maybe he had misjudged the situation.
▪misinterpret to not understand the true meaning of someone’s actions or words, so that you believe something that is not in fact true: A lot of people misinterpreted what I was saying, and have called me a racist. | Struggling with an unfamiliar language, the simplest conversations were misinterpreted.
▪misconstrue formal to misunderstand something that someone has said or done: She claimed that members of the press had misconstrued her comments.
▪miss the point to not understand the main part or meaning of what someone is saying or what something is intended to do: I think you're missing the whole point of the film. | If he thinks it's all about how much profit he can make, then he's missing the point.
▪get the wrong end of the stick British English informal to make a mistake about one part of something that you are told, so that you understand the rest of it in completely the wrong way: Maybe I got the wrong end of the stick. I thought she was leaving him, not the other way round.
mis‧con‧strue /ˌmɪskənˈstruː/
verb [transitive] formalto misunderstand something that someone has said or done
SYN misinterpret:
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