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 of mismanage

• misconduct
• damage
• violate
• mishandle
• misgovern
• abuse

Examples of mismanage in a Sentence

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

Recent Examples on the Web

In nearly a third of petitions, beneficiaries requested a detailed accounting of the trust’s finances, which Horton said reflects beneficiaries who suspected their trustees were mismanaging funds or ripping them off. — Hayley Cuccinello, CNBC, 25 Sep. 2026

The front office mismanaged the cap this summer, especially with some of its up-and-coming talent. — Shayna Goldman, New York Times, 16 Sep. 2026

Sure, this sounds insane, but the real insanity is how much New York mismanages its education system and how little attention the problem receives in Albany. — Zilvinas "z" Silenas, New York Daily News, 14 Sep. 2026

So deep are the divisions that hardliners have accused officials of deliberately mismanaging the economic crisis to pressure an exhausted public into accepting a deal. — Mostafa Salem, CNN Money, 30 Aug. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1651, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for mismanage

• manage
• tannage

Kids Definition

mismanage

verb

mis·​man·​age

(ˈ)mis-ˈman-ij

: to manage badly or improperly

mismanagement

-mənt

noun