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

Some on the council pushed back, questioning whether the city's nearly $65 million in annual funding for the jail was being mismanaged. —Chris Kenning, USA Today, 17 June 2025

The place, mismanaged by Amtrak for more than a half century and divided into balkanized fiefdoms, is an embarrassment to America’s premier city. —New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 18 Apr. 2025

Authoritarian regimes have a habit of mismanaging internal dissent, falsifying reality and making preventable mistakes. —Wal Van Lierop, Forbes.com, 5 June 2025

Kelly Cunningham, San Diego Institute for Economic Research NO: This is a prime example of government mismanaging economic movement. —Phillip Molnar, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 June 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