MISCONSTRUE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does misconstrue mean? 

• MISCONSTRUE (verb)
  The verb MISCONSTRUE has 1 sense:

1. interpret in the wrong way

  Familiarity information: MISCONSTRUE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MISCONSTRUE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they misconstrue    ... he / she / it misconstrues   
Past simple: misconstrued   
Past participle: misconstrued   
-ing form: misconstruing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Interpret in the wrong way

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

be amiss; misapprehend; misconceive; misconstrue; misinterpret; misunderstand

Context example:

She misconstrued my remarks

Hypernyms (to "misconstrue" is one way to...):

construe; interpret; see (make sense of; assign a meaning to)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

misconstrual; misconstruction (a kind of misinterpretation resulting from putting a wrong construction on words or actions (often deliberately))

 Context examples 

"Explanation will do for another time," thought I. Still, when I reached my chamber, I felt a pang at the idea she should even temporarily misconstrue what she had seen.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

We removed to Windsor; and two days afterwards I received a parcel from her, my own letters all returned!—and a few lines at the same time by the post, stating her extreme surprize at not having had the smallest reply to her last; and adding, that as silence on such a point could not be misconstrued, and as it must be equally desirable to both to have every subordinate arrangement concluded as soon as possible, she now sent me, by a safe conveyance, all my letters, and requested, that if I could not directly command hers, so as to send them to Highbury within a week, I would forward them after that period to her at—: in short, the full direction to Mr. Smallridge's, near Bristol, stared me in the face.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)