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

But the organization is also financially mismanaged, medically irresponsible, and plagued with scandal. —Josh Hammer, MSNBC Newsweek, 1 Apr. 2025

Of course, this conversation is happening against the backdrop of a correctional system that remains mismanaged and dangerous, and a change of venue is not going to magically fix that. —New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 21 Mar. 2025

At the time, the actor claimed his father had mismanaged the money from his early movies and abused him. —Janelle Ash, Fox News, 14 Mar. 2025

The argument for a reserve is basically that there’s a (very small) chance that the Federal Reserve could completely mismanage the dollar. —Allison Morrow, CNN, 8 Mar. 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