mismanage

verb

mis·​man·​age ˌmis-ˈma-nij 

mismanaged; mismanaging

transitive verb

: to manage (something) wrongly or poorly

mismanage a business

… started thinking that maybe employees are sometimes mismanaged because they let themselves be mismanaged. They don't fight back.

—A. J. Anderson

… even those professional Pollyannas who publicly find reason to praise the current municipal administration shake their heads in private and wonder how long we can go on deliberately mismanaging our affairs.

—Brendan Gill

mismanagement

ˌmis-ˈma-nij-mənt 

noun

plural mismanagements

financial mismanagement of the company

Synonyms

• maladminister
• misconduct
• misgovern
• mishandle
• misrule

Examples of mismanage in a Sentence

the business was mismanaged so seriously that it eventually had to declare bankruptcy

Recent Examples on the Web

Some hideously mismanaged childhood vaccination in Leningrad created a thick keloid scar running the length of my right shoulder. —Gary Shteyngart, The Atlantic, 7 Feb. 2025

The Gophers men’s basketball team mismanaged its way to only 12 points through 16-plus minutes in Tuesday’s first half at Michigan State. —Andy Greder, Twin Cities, 29 Jan. 2025

Then on the night after Christmas, the Bears scored three points, gained 179 yards of offense, mismanaged the final minute, saw their rookie quarterback get sacked seven more times and showed a national television audience how bad things have gotten. —Kevin Fishbain, The Athletic, 27 Dec. 2024

Without the watchdog calling out the DOT, agency officials would likely still be mismanaging its equipment, not following through on cybersecurity monitoring and not retaining proper documents for contracts. —David Williams, Baltimore Sun, 29 Jan. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1651, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

mismanage

verb

mis·​man·​age

(ˈ)mis-ˈman-ij

: to manage badly or improperly

mismanagement

-mənt

noun