mis ‧ con ‧ strue /ˌmɪskənˈstruː/ BrE AmE verb [transitive] formal
to ↑ misunderstand something that someone has said or done SYN misinterpret :
His behaviour could easily be misconstrued.
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THESAURUS
▪ misunderstand to think that someone means one thing, when in fact they mean something else:
I think you've misunderstood what I'm saying.
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Some companies appear to have misunderstood the new rules.
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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.
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You've got me all wrong - that's not what I meant.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.