misspent

verb

past tense of misspend
as in spent
to use up carelessly warned that a childhood spent hanging around indoors was a misspent youth indeed

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for misspent
  1. spent
  2. lost
  3. wasted
Verb
  • The network known as Fairshake spent $40 million in 2024 to unseat Brown, then the Senate Banking Committee chair; after Brown lost, crypto antagonist-in-chief Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts replaced him as the panel’s top Democrat.
    — Eleanor Mueller, semafor.com, 28 Oct. 2026
  • His campaign has a budget of about $30,000 and has spent $7,000 on advertising, running a spot on streaming services in four Texas counties where Libertarians have fared better in recent elections.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 28 Oct. 2026
Definition of spent
Verb
  • Germany lost its status in science in the 1930s when many leading physicists fled from fascism.
    — Mattanjah de Vries, Chicago Tribune, 28 Oct. 2026
  • Between 2023 and 2026, Florida has lost 80,000 students, returning to 2016 enrollment levels.
    — Letters to the Editor, The Orlando Sentinel, 28 Oct. 2026
Definition of lost
Verb
  • If Republicans lose big next month, there’ll be a brawl to assign blame — which consultants blew it, which ads wasted money, which issues didn’t work.
    — David Weigel, semafor.com, 21 Oct. 2026
  • If that is impossible for systems much larger than atoms, many of humanity’s current technological efforts would be wasted.
    — Philipp Strasberg, Scientific American, 20 Oct. 2026
Definition of wasted
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.

Browse Nearby Words

misspends
misspent
misspoke
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Misspent.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/misspent. Accessed 28 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of grotesque

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World

Why do we 'bury the lede?'

'Za' and 9 Other Words to Help You Win at SCRABBLE
See More

Popular

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
different halloween monsters in silhouette
A Monstrous Vocab Quiz Words That Go Bump in the Night
See All