misallocate

verb

mis·​al·​lo·​cate ˌmis-ˈa-lə-ˌkāt 

misallocated; misallocating

transitive verb

: to allocate (something, such as money or resources) poorly or improperly

allegedly misallocated company funds

Top managers misallocate resources, overpay themselves, and ignore other, possibly better ways of motivating employees—all because giving out options is "free."

—Justin Fox

Examples of misallocate in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

This is not a place that can afford to misallocate hundreds of millions of dollars in educational funds. — Eric Levitz, Daily Intelligencer, 1 Mar. 2018

At this point, just about any investment in mass education is misallocated—misaligned with the way everyone learns today. — Josh Hammer, MSNBC Newsweek, 23 Sep. 2025

Industrial policy of this sort would misallocate capital in a way that would slow the economy’s transition to a post-virus new normal. — Glenn Hubbard, WSJ, 8 Dec. 2020

The authors of that USC paper acknowledged that rent control is a blunt tool that can misallocate capital in housing. — Star Tribune, 3 July 2021

Word History

First Known Use

1934, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for misallocate

• abbreviate
• accelerate
• accommodate
• accumulate
• acuminate
• adjudicate
• adulterate
• affiliate
• agglomerate
• agglutinate
• alleviate
• amalgamate