get the wrong idea

present singular third person gets the wrong idea · participle present getting the wrong idea · past got the wrong idea · US participle past gotten the wrong idea · UK participle past got the wrong idea

1. To get the wrong end of the stick

   1 more example

   I’ve heard that lawyers’ children, on seeing their parents in court in the heat of argument, get the wrong idea: they think opposing counsel to be the personal enemies of their parents, they suffer agonies, and are surprised to see them often go out arm-in-arm with their tormenters during the first recess

   1960 July 11, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC