mishandled

verb

past tense of mishandle
1
as in abused
to inflict physical or emotional harm upon having been shuffled from foster home to foster home, the orphaned girl felt she had been mishandled by an uncaring society

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2
as in attacked
to abuse physically adopted a sadly mishandled puppy from the pound

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3
as in mismanaged
to manage badly we took over as soon as we realized that the fill-in had been mishandling the situation

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of mishandled The Fed’s watchdog said renovations were mishandled, but no laws were broken. — Alec Dent, Washington Post, 30 Sep. 2026 Ryan Vilade and Diaz walked and as the Yankees mishandled a throw in attempting a double play on Liam Hicks’ grounder, Vilade made a heads-up dash for home. — Marc Topkin, The Orlando Sentinel, 25 Sep. 2026 The Michigan Supreme Court has ordered the state Court of Appeals to take another look at the life sentence given to Ethan Crumbley, the Oxford High School shooter, including whether his trial attorneys mishandled a defense expert's testimony. — Paula Wethington, CBS News, 18 Sep. 2026 Woods mishandled at least 1,045 criminal cases during her 29-year career as a DNA analyst at the CBI. — Shelly Bradbury, Denver Post, 8 Sep. 2026 According to The Athletic, attorney Rob Carey is representing his family and said the university mishandled the investigation into his medical emergency. — Natasha Dye, PEOPLE, 1 Sep. 2026 Over his two-hour closing, Sanft claimed that the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department mishandled the search for the Cadillac, allowed unauthorized people to access the case file, and lost police reports during a technology upgrade. — Nancy Dillon, Rolling Stone, 31 Aug. 2026 Merrill walked and Bogaerts singled to start the fifth inning, and the Padres loaded the bases when Mateo mishandled Austin Hays’ grounder to second. — Kevin Acee, San Diego Union-Tribune, 29 Aug. 2026 The Brewers got the leadoff batter on when Atlanta pitcher Martín Pérez (8-8) mishandled a dribbler from Cooper Pratt, who beat the throw to first. — ABC News, 22 Aug. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for mishandled
  1. abused
  2. attacked
  3. damaged
  4. bullied
  5. manhandled
  6. violated
  7. mistreated
  8. mauled
Verb
  • Ireland forward Adam Idah, who is Black, was allegedly racially abused by a small number of Israeli fans present during the first match.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 5 Oct. 2026
  • The girl was found in Mexico along with her father, 38-year-old Sergio Galvez Perez, who authorities allege abused and impregnated her.
    — Jasmine Mendez, Los Angeles Times, 5 Oct. 2026
Definition of abused
Verb
  • Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said Friday that Ukraine attacked four Russian oil refineries overnight, but air defenses fended off the attacks.
    — HANNA ARHIROVA, Arkansas Online, 3 Oct. 2026
  • Trust took another nosedive when OpenAI’s agents attacked Hugging Face this summer and, in a world-first, a rogue model hacked the Australian Government’s website.
    — Yerbol Orynbayev, Fortune, 3 Oct. 2026
Definition of attacked
Verb
  • Merz and Zelenskyy visited a building of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in central Kyiv that was damaged in a Russian attack that killed two people on Monday, as air raid sirens sounded across the capital.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 5 Oct. 2026
  • Strikes on Kyiv’s bridges continue Russian attacks damaged Kyiv’s Northern Bridge over the Dnieper River again on Sunday.
    — Susie Blann, Chicago Tribune, 4 Oct. 2026
Definition of damaged
Verb
  • His descriptions of being bullied in high school for his sexuality resemble plotlines from Very Special Episodes of TV, and his relationship with his ailing father is similarly generic.
    — Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 23 Sep. 2026
  • Yes, Stark has painted, or, more accurately, anodized, powder-coated, and otherwise bullied into submission just about everything to black.
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 16 Sep. 2026
Definition of bullied
Verb
  • Being manhandled at home by a team with the sport’s sixth-lowest payroll is a negative.
    — Chandler Rome, New York Times, 1 Oct. 2026
  • He was brought to the prison infirmary, where numerous guards surrounded, punched, kicked, choked, dropped and manhandled him.
    — Colin Mixson, New York Daily News, 19 Sep. 2026
Definition of manhandled
Verb
  • In September, a drone that violated Lithuanian airspace was shot down over the nation’s territory for the first time, following similar incidents in Latvia and Estonia.
    — Chas Newkey-Burden, TheWeek, 9 Oct. 2026
  • The release of the footage comes after the Virginian-Pilot and the Daily Press filed a motion earlier this year for it to be unsealed, arguing that keeping it from the public violated the First Amendment.
    — Juan Benn Jr, Washington Post, 8 Oct. 2026
Definition of violated
Verb
  • Ultimately, the show attempts to draw a parallel between Lizzie Borden and Aileen Wuornos, portraying them as two women abused and mistreated by society who dared to fight back.
    — Brianna Zigler, Entertainment Weekly, 17 Sep. 2026
  • The other has been dismissed or mistreated in a clinic before, and reads the same sentence as confirmation that they were not told the whole story the first time.
    — Aleeza Gerstein, The Conversation, 28 Aug. 2026
Definition of mistreated
Verb
  • When his grandfather was mauled by a leopard caught in a trap set for an impala, however, Mgesi began to feel that the dangers of hunting wildlife outweighed its benefits for humans.
    — Juliet Kinsman, Condé Nast Traveler, 22 Sep. 2026
  • The native dogs are known to have killed baby Azaria Chamberlain, who was taken in the outback in 1980, and mauled Canadian tourist Piper James, who died on K’Gari off the coast of Queensland earlier this year.
    — Hilary Whiteman, CNN Money, 20 Sep. 2026
Definition of mauled

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Cite this Entry

“Mishandled.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mishandled. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026.

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