Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To spend improperly or extravagantly; squander.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To spend amiss; make a bad or useless expenditure of; waste: as, to
misspend time or money; to misspend life.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To spend amiss or for wrong purposes; to squander; to waste.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To
spend poorly, incorrectly orunwisely .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb spend time badly or unwisely
- verb spend (money or other resources) unwisely
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The harder and more important question is why County institutions ignore early warnings, massively misspend, reward incompetence, and repeatedly prove unable to reverse dysfunction or enact even simple reforms like data sharing.
Constance L. Rice: Los Angeles County: "Oz Without the Wizard," Part 2 Constance L. Rice 2010
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They were at work making money to pay the taxes that this Administration has continued to misspend.
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There are people in our society that are willful drains on our economy, who choose not to work and misspend their welfare checks.
Janice Taylor: A Health Care Letter to the President on Facebook 2010
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There are people in our society that are willful drains on our economy, who choose not to work and misspend their welfare checks.
Janice Taylor: A Health Care Letter to the President on Facebook 2010
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There are people in our society that are willful drains on our economy, who choose not to work and misspend their welfare checks.
Janice Taylor: A Health Care Letter to the President on Facebook 2010
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Unlike the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, they haven't got millions to spend on marketing -- or misspend on lobbying, as the New York Times documented on Monday.
Kerry Trueman: Chelsea's Locally Sourced Wedding: It Takes a Village to Keep a Secret 2010
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Should Geinter have the power to seize community orgaizing groups if they misspend the money?
Drudge vs. Obama. Ann Althouse 2009
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The White House has kept in force a set of rules known as the Stafford Act. Under its guidance, rebuilding funds must be accompanied by a 10% match from local governments, on the theory that localities won't misspend if their money is also on the line.
Archive 2007-01-01 2007
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Mr. Obama said if his administration sees states misspend the money, then his words, "We're going to put a stop to it."
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Thus, taxes dedicated to particular programs can counteract the idea that government will misspend increased revenue.
Matthew Yglesias » Bad News for People Who Like Big Government 2007
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