behave

UK/bᵻˈheɪv/US/bɪˈheɪv/

verbA23 meanings Very common — you will meet it every day · #1,750 of 15,258leans spoken

Other forms: behaves, behaved, behaving

To behave is to act in a particular way. A dog behaves well on the lead, a car behaves badly in the wet, and when a parent hisses 'behave' across a supermarket aisle, they mean act properly and stop it now.

On its own, behave means behave well: if you behave, we can stay for pudding. With an adverb it is neutral — behave badly, behave strangely, behave like an adult. Behave yourself is the fixed reflexive form, and you will hear it constantly from tired adults. Scientists use the word for things that have no manners at all: how a metal behaves under heat, how a market behaves after a crash. The noun is behaviour, spelled behavior in America, and you never behave someone — the verb takes no object except yourself.

Definitions of behave

1verbbehaveTo act in a particular way.A2~62%
“He behaves quite differently when his manager is in the room.”
synonyms: act, conduct yourself
2verbpoliteTo act in the polite, controlled way people expect.A2~15%
“Behave yourself at your grandmother's, and no elbows on the table.”
3verbsubstanceOf a substance, machine or system, to react in a particular way under particular conditions.B2~23%
“Glass behaves strangely when it is heated too quickly.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 13 sentences found in the wild and placed 13 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

Where it comes from

Behave is be- plus have, from Old English behabban, whose meanings were to surround, contain, hold back, restrain. Have there is closer to hold than to own. So behaving was holding yourself in, which is exactly what a parent still means by it.

Proto-Indo-European
*kap-
Old English
behabban
Middle English
behaven
English, today
behave

Built from

bihabben · Middle English — to restrain, behave

From Middle English behaven, from Old English behabban. From Middle English behaven, bihabben (“to restrain, behave”), from Old English behabban (“to surround, embrace, hold, contain, hold back, withhold, restrain”), from Proto-West Germanic bihabbjan, equivalent to be- + have. Cognate with Middle Low German behebben, behāven (“to receive, acquire, reach, keep”), Low German behebben (“to act, behave”), German behaben (“to behave”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Everyday Verbs, A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 5 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

behave in the wild

The outcome is not the sole determining factor in making the decision of how to behave.
Expectancy theory
In the story, an ape named Red Peter, who has learned to behave like a human, presents to an academy the story of how he effected his transformation.
A Report to an Academy
While at times one can behave with a specific goal in mind, other times they can behave without rational control, and driven by impulse instead.
Social behavior
Since some illnesses and medical treatments behave differently in adults and children, relying solely on research performed on adult subjects may be inadequate for the treatment of children.
Children in clinical research
While it has not been proven that non-human animals do, or even can, die by suicide, many animals behave in ways that may seem suicidal.
Animal suicide

1 / 3

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the behabban family

behavior behave

behave — used about once every 206 pages · #1,750 · point at the bar for the others

misbehave

Definitions of behave

1verbbehaveTo act in a particular way.A2~62%

“He behaves quite differently when his manager is in the room.”

synonyms: act, conduct yourself

2verbpoliteTo act in the polite, controlled way people expect.A2~15%

“Behave yourself at your grandmother's, and no elbows on the table.”

3verbsubstanceOf a substance, machine or system, to react in a particular way under particular conditions.B2~23%

“Glass behaves strangely when it is heated too quickly.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 13 sentences found in the wild and placed 13 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.