misdirect
/mɪsdʌɪˈrɛkt
/ /mɪsdɪˈrɛkt/verb [with object]
1Direct to the wrong place or in the wrong direction: voters were misdirected to the wrong polling station...
- Apparently the kids were misdirecting him a bit, but he should have known the way.
- Delegates to the Democratic convention in Boston, though, did not have to hide their Kerry buttons to avoid being assaulted, harassed, or misdirected by Republican protestors.
- Other business leaders said Bolton is badly signposted, with visitors from the North often being misdirected by signs at Kearsley roundabout, and little or no signs in the centre itself.
1.1Use or apply (something) wrongly or inappropriately: their efforts have been largely misdirected...
- However, as the pandemic unfolded with a terrible ferocity across Africa, she became increasingly frustrated with the, in her view, often misdirected efforts of charitable organisations in the Western world.
- Your correspondent rightly complains about the outbreak of unnecessary pedestrian islands, in particular in Banstead Road South, but when he accuses the council his concern is misdirected.
- While this line of argument exposes some of the biases informing the academic boycott movement, there are two other important reasons why a boycott of Israeli universities is misdirected.
2(Of a judge) instruct (a jury) wrongly: the appeal court was satisfied that the trial judge had misdirected the jury...
- The judicial errors identified by the Court of Appeal in your client's case were that the trial judge misdirected the jury as to the meaning of the words ‘knowing and believing’.
- The Court of Appeal agreed that the trial judge had misdirected the jury in certain respects, but held that the jury's directions were unduly favourable to the applicant.
- What has happened here is that the Court of Criminal Appeal has accepted that the trial judge misdirected the jury because there was a change in legal principle.
