misspend

[mis-spend]

verb (used with object)

misspent, misspending 

1. to spend wrongly or unwisely; squander; waste.

misspend

/ ˌmɪsˈspɛnd /

verb

1. to spend thoughtlessly or wastefully

Other Word Forms

• misspender noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of misspend¹

1350–1400; Middle English. See mis- ¹, spend

Example Sentences

Dame Meg Hillier, chairwoman of the Commons treasury committee, said "we need to have answers" to ensure taxpayers' money was not being misspent.

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“If we end up misspending a couple of hundred billion dollars, I think that that is going to be very unfortunate obviously,” Meta Platforms Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg recently acknowledged.

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“There was no wrongdoing or things being hidden or money misspent or being stolen. What he’s saying, there’s nothing of that, you know?”

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They think claims of bureaucratic bloat and misspent tax dollars are legit across all levels of government, and he noted that in California, undocumented immigrants qualify for Medi-Cal.

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It believes that much of that funding has been misspent.

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