How to Use mishandle in a Sentence

mishandle

verb
Definition of mishandlenext
Synonyms for mishandlenext
  • The shortstop mishandled the throw.
  • The quarterback fumbled when he mishandled the snap.
  • Apples are easily bruised when they are mishandled.
  • The police mishandled the investigation.
  • Lamine Conte mishandled the ball in the back and lost it to Ernesto Corral.
    — Mobile Athletics, AL.com, 12 Oct. 2017
  • In the fourth, the Broncos mishandled a snap and were unable to get a punt off from their own goal line.
    — Alex Kushel, sun-sentinel.com, 24 Aug. 2019
  • Got caught a couple of times and mishandled some pucks, which is very rare for him.
    — Scott Wheeler, The Athletic, 6 Jan. 2025
  • Last month the court threw out the result of August’s poll because the count had been mishandled.
    — The Economist, 26 Oct. 2017
  • Winker ended up at third when Yelich mishandled the ball.
    — John Fay, Cincinnati.com, 18 Apr. 2018
  • Some of the uptick in bear nuisance reports is caused by campers who mishandle their food.
    — Bob Timmons, Star Tribune, 3 Aug. 2020
  • Pass mishandled his first snap, and Murray State ran it in for a touchdown.
    — Jake Lourim, The Courier-Journal, 30 Sep. 2017
  • The data walked out the door the way it was supposed to — it was just mishandled by the people who collected it.
    — Kurt Wagner, Recode, 10 Apr. 2018
  • The Ravens mishandled a succession of key plays that could have made the game easier for them.
    — Childs Walker, baltimoresun.com, 24 Dec. 2017
  • With two out, Gordon hit a grounder to the right side, but Jimenez mishandled the toss from first baseman John Hicks for an error, loading the bases.
    — Noah Trister, chicagotribune.com, 13 May 2018
  • This is not the first time Sohail has been accused of mishandling vaccines.
    — Alexia Fernandez, PEOPLE.com, 26 Feb. 2018
  • Hurts mishandled two snaps against the Green Bay Packers, once under center and once in the shotgun when the snap was early.
    — Rohan Nadkarni, NBC News, 17 Sep. 2024
  • The odds that tonight's winner might mishandle their winnings?
    — Zoey Lyttle, PEOPLE.com, 29 July 2022
  • The Dodgers then came back to tie it in the eighth when Ohtani lined a ball off the center-field fence for a double and then raced to third when Gleyber Torres mishandled the relay.
    — Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times, 26 Oct. 2024
  • Even after that, other cases of abuse were mishandled in the late 1990s or kept under wraps.
    — Lee O. Sanderlin, Baltimore Sun, 25 Aug. 2023
  • All of this has been mishandled and that can be laid at the feet of Senator Dianne Feinstein.
    — Fox News, 20 Sep. 2018
  • Washington mishandled two field goals (and had one of them blocked), and Chris Thompson coughed up a kick return.
    — Jonathan Jones, SI.com, 29 Oct. 2017
  • Saturday's event was aimed at healing the wounds of killing overlooked and mishandled 70 years ago.
    — Hanna Krueger, NOLA.com, 28 Apr. 2018
  • Farrell opened the scoring 1:23 into the first period when the rookie took a shot from along the boards that was mishandled by Lyon and went in.
    — Sun Sentinel, 30 Mar. 2023
  • The treasury secretary also has the power to withhold these funds if they are mishandled by the states.
    — Arthur Jones Ii, ABC News, 21 Nov. 2024
  • In poll after poll, city residents have said the city is on the wrong track and that Breed is mishandling the city’s recovery from the pandemic.
    — Heather Knight, New York Times, 26 Sep. 2023
  • But a bad snap was mishandled and Danvers suddenly had the ball on the Marblehead 16-yard line with 16 seconds to play.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 26 Oct. 2019
  • Glenelg mishandled the snap on the point-after attempt, however, and the Owls remained one score behind.
    — Megan Woodward, baltimoresun.com/maryland/carroll, 30 Sep. 2019
  • Hours before tipoff, Donovan warned about the dangers of mishandling the ball in transition.
    — Julia Poe, Chicago Tribune, 21 Jan. 2025
  • But Moore mishandled it, recovered and then hurried a throw to first base that sailed over Healy’s head for his first error that allowed a run to score.
    — Ryan Divish, The Seattle Times, 30 Mar. 2019
  • Gridlock perpetual problems: This is a perpetual problem that has been mishandled.
    — Aditi Shrikant, CNBC, 23 Jan. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'mishandle.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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