as in to spend
to use up carelessly
warned that a childhood spent hanging around indoors was a misspent youth indeed
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Recent Examples of misspend
Every Floridian must be made aware of the blatant corruption and misspending public money in Tallahassee.
—
Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 18 May 2025
While Argentina has received massive IMF loans in the past, previous governments had misspent most of the funds on subsidies to win elections.
—Andres Oppenheimer, Miami Herald, 18 Apr. 2025
Local officials also break the law, such as when health officials in Mississippi misspent federal funds for needy people on a volleyball stadium.
—Kevin R. Kosar, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 21 Mar. 2025
Attorneys continue to await trial details for a former Caltrain manager who has been charged with misspending agency funds to build himself a secret apartment at a train station, and is expected to be challenged by his one-time co-defendant who has agreed to testify for the prosecution.
—Robert Salonga, The Mercury News, 28 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for misspend
Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 18 May 2025
While Argentina has received massive IMF loans in the past, previous governments had misspent most of the funds on subsidies to win elections.
—Andres Oppenheimer, Miami Herald, 18 Apr. 2025
Local officials also break the law, such as when health officials in Mississippi misspent federal funds for needy people on a volleyball stadium.
—Kevin R. Kosar, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 21 Mar. 2025
Attorneys continue to await trial details for a former Caltrain manager who has been charged with misspending agency funds to build himself a secret apartment at a train station, and is expected to be challenged by his one-time co-defendant who has agreed to testify for the prosecution.
—Robert Salonga, The Mercury News, 28 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for misspend
Recent Examples of Synonyms for misspend
spend
Verb
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That year, the board hired Pat Gelsinger, an engineer who had spent 30 years at Intel before leaving it for other companies and eventually running VMware.—
Lila MacLellan,
Fortune,
1 Oct. 2025
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Elordi spent up to 10 hours per session in the makeup chair and worked 18-hour days in full prosthetics.—
Brian Hiatt,
Rolling Stone,
1 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Misspend.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/misspend. Accessed 2 Oct. 2025.
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