misemploy

[mis-em-ploi]

verb (used with object)

1. to use for the wrong purpose; use wrongly or improperly; misuse.

Other Word Forms

• misemployment noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of misemploy¹

First recorded in 1600–10; mis- ¹ + employ

Example Sentences

Jehovah’s Witnesses spokesman Jarrod Lopes, speaking from the group’s Tuxedo Park, New York, headquarters, said “Russia continues to shamelessly misemploy its anti-extremist legislation to ban, imprison, and at times beat and torture Jehovah’s Witnesses. Doling out an average of six years in prison simply for peaceful Christian worship, Russia’s legal system has become a cathedral of what it hates — extremism.”

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Misemploy, mis-em-ploi′, v.t. to employ wrongly or amiss: to misuse.—n.

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Misemploy′ment, ill-employment: improper application: misuse.

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Now put the Case that a Magistrate should make a wrong Judgment of Matters, and misemploy those Powers; it were an Infelicity in the Administration; but the Sacredness of Authority is still the same: And he is a Mad man, that plucks down his House, because it rains in at the Window.

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Do misemploy, misuse, and pervert apply to persons or things?

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Related Words

• blow 
• consume 
• deplete 
• dissipate 
• divert 
• drain 
• exhaust 
• lavish 
• lose 
• misuse 
• squander 
• undermine