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

• 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

Earlier this year, a Sacramento grand jury report found the Isleton City Council and staff mismanaged its finances. —Emma Hall, Sacbee.com, 2 Sep. 2025

The president has constantly mocked Powell on social media, and accused him of mismanaging renovations of the Fed’s headquarters, even ambushing the Fed chief with a new cost estimate for a facility renovation in front of rolling television cameras. —Tobias Burns, The Hill, 29 Aug. 2025

Republican lawmakers say the department mismanaging its money is a main issue. —Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 29 Aug. 2025

The problem appeared all the more galling, the lawsuit claimed, because at least one of the funeral home directors had previously been promoted after allegedly mismanaging another cremation. —Jakob Rodgers, Mercury News, 22 Aug. 2025

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