1 [V+adv./prep.] to do things in a particular way
SYNACT:
The doctor behaved very unprofessionally. * They behaved very badly towards their guests. * He behaved like a true gentleman. * She behaved with great dignity. * He behaved as if / though nothing had happened. * They behave differently when you're not around.
HELPNOTE In spoken English people often use like instead of as if or as though, especially in AmE: He behaved like nothing had happened. This is considered incorrect in written BrE.
2 ~ (yourself) to do things in a way that people think is correct or polite:
[V] Will you kids just behave! * She doesn't know how to behave in public. * The children always behave for their father. * [VN] I want you to behave yourselves while I'm away.
OPPMISBEHAVE
3 (-behaved) (in adjectives) behaving in the way mentioned:
well- / badly-behaved children
4 [V+adv./prep.] (technical) to naturally react, move, etc. in a particular way:
a study of how metals behave under pressure
IDIOMS see OWNv.
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About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
This entry for behave is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Is behave a noun, verb, or something else?
In this entry, behave is tagged as verb.
Does behave appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — behave appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.
