MISUNDERSTOOD

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does misunderstood mean? 

• MISUNDERSTOOD (adjective)
  The adjective MISUNDERSTOOD has 1 sense:

1. wrongly understood

  Familiarity information: MISUNDERSTOOD used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MISUNDERSTOOD (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Wrongly understood

Context example:

a misunderstood question

Similar:

ununderstood (not understood)

 Context examples 

I should not have thought it possible, she began, that you could have misunderstood me!

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Elizabeth felt that they had entirely misunderstood his character, but said nothing.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

And by this I do not wish to be misunderstood.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

What was great and strong in him, she missed, or, worse yet, misunderstood.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Sharks, marine scientists say, are often misunderstood, described as ravenous man-eaters.

(Sharks, the seagrass protectors, National Science Foundation)

I could not have misunderstood a thing of that kind, you know!

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

It was misunderstood for fear, and such misunderstandings made for death.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

I was going to say, impassioned: but perhaps you would have misunderstood the word, and been displeased.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Such was the sentence which, when misunderstood, so justly offended the delicate feelings of Mrs. Jennings; but after this narration of what really passed between Colonel Brandon and Elinor, while they stood at the window, the gratitude expressed by the latter on their parting, may perhaps appear in general, not less reasonably excited, nor less properly worded than if it had arisen from an offer of marriage.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

We asked him to come home with us for a day or two: Charles undertook to give him some shooting, and he seemed quite delighted, and, for my part, I thought it was all settled; when behold! on Tuesday night, he made a very awkward sort of excuse; 'he never shot' and he had 'been quite misunderstood,' and he had promised this and he had promised that, and the end of it was, I found, that he did not mean to come.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)