behave

Behave is a verb meaning to act in a specified or appropriate manner, and to conduct oneself in a way that is considered proper or acceptable. It is commonly used to describe social conduct, such as children should behave in class or someone should behave themselves. The form is regular: behave, behaved, behaving. It is typically intransitive, as in “The dog behaved well,” though it can be used with reflexive pronouns, as in “behave yourself.” The related adjective is well-behaved, and the noun form in American English is behavior (British English: behaviour).

Etymology and usage context: behave comes from be- plus have, with the sense of possessing or exhibiting a certain manner of conduct. It has long been used to express expectations of conduct in social settings, schools, workplaces, and etiquette contexts. The opposite is to misbehave. Common collocations include “behave properly,” “behave yourself,” and “behavioral expectations.”

In language and grammar, behave is primarily intransitive, though it can be extended by objects in some constructions, such as “behave in a professional manner.” The word forms a family with behavior/behaviour, misbehave, and well-behaved. It is widely used across varieties of English with only minor spelling differences.

In computing, behave is also the name of a Python-based behavior-driven development (BDD) framework. This tool uses plain-language feature files written in Gherkin syntax to describe software behavior, with steps implemented in Python. It is intended to improve communication among developers, testers, and stakeholders by connecting requirements to automated tests.