mismanage
Americanverb (used with or without object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Conjugated Forms
Present
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have mismanagedperfect
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has mismanagedperfect 3rd person singular
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are mismanagingprogressive
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am mismanagingprogressive 1st person singular
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has been mismanagingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
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is mismanagingprogressive 3rd person singular
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mismanagingparticiple
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have been mismanagingperfect progressive
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mismanagessingular 3rd person
Past
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had mismanagedperfect
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were mismanagingprogressive plural
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was mismanagingprogressive singular
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had been mismanagingperfect progressive
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mismanagedparticiple
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mismanagedsimple
Future
Etymology
Origin of mismanage
Explanation
To mismanage is to handle something badly. A company will go bankrupt if its leaders mismanage it. If you mismanage your allowance, you’ll be out of money in no time. To manage is to handle or run something, so to mismanage is to make a mess of something you're doing or running. A general manager could mismanage a basketball team by trading away good players. The President can mismanage the country by making political and economic mistakes. You can mismanage your time if you goof off and don't get your work done. To mismanage is to mishandle.
Vocabulary lists containing mismanage
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Deirdre said the reason people are going to food banks is "not because we mismanage money. It's not because we can't budget. It's because there isn't enough to budget."
From BBC • May 24, 2025
“We didn’t have any money to mismanage, because we didn’t have any money,” Spence said of the JFK8 campaign.
From Seattle Times • Jul. 14, 2022
I didn’t understand how people with enough money could so easily mismanage it or make monumentally bad financial decisions.
From Washington Post • Mar. 30, 2022
As he approaches a likely third term in power that would start next year, it could be politically damaging if his government were to mismanage Evergrande.
From New York Times • Sep. 26, 2021
It is exceedingly easy to mismanage such cases, as we all see every day: but it is also very easy to render this early power of Will a great blessing.
From Household Education by Martineau, Harriet
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
