Home › Words › M › mismaintainmismaintainmismaintain means to maintain improperly; to provide inadequate maintenance.EtymologyFrom mis- + maintain.verbTo maintain improperly; to provide inadequate maintenance.e.g.“A bus can be mismaintained causing it to spill gallons of expensive fuel rounding the first corner of the day.” — 1990, Mass Transit - Volume 17, page 50:Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).Words closest in meaningBy meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.undermaintain 83% match — To maintain inadequately; to allow to fall into disrepair. vs mismaintain →nonmaintenance 74% match — Failure to maintain something. vs mismaintain →mismachine 62% match — To machine incorrectly; to fail to shape perfectly. vs mismaintain →maintaining 61% match — The act of doing maintenance. vs mismaintain →mismanned 60% match — Having inappropriate personnel; improperly manned. vs mismaintain →maintainment 60% match — maintenance vs mismaintain →undermanage 59% match — To manage inadequately. vs mismaintain →misprovide 59% match — To provide badly or wrongly. vs mismaintain →