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

The accountant mismanaged the Oscar winner’s funds, bringing Pacino’s savings from a staggering $50 million to zero dollars. —Zack Sharf, Variety, 16 Oct. 2024

But in 2013, they were accused of fraud and sued by a former investor for mismanaging company funds. —Jean E. Palmieri, WWD, 2 July 2024

The loan-servicing giant allegedly mismanaged payment processing, hurting the credit of disabled borrowers whose loans had been discharged, the agency contended. —Kate Gibson, CBS News, 12 Sep. 2024

Catherine Engelbrecht, the founder of True the Vote, has argued for more than a decade that mismanaged voter rolls have led to widespread voter fraud. —David Gilbert, WIRED, 31 July 2024

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