mismending

Verb

mismend (third-person singular simple present mismends, present participle mismending, simple past and past participle mismended)

1. (transitive) To mend improperly; to attempt to fix without success.
   • A flash of something like a look of scorn darted from under the brows of the cynical Grindlines, his very nose curled with angry disapprobation, as he threw down a pen which he had been mending or mismending, and muttered — A - M - P - L - I - T - I - C - A - T - I - O - N !!1856, William Arundell Harris, The Pilgrim Minstrel, and Wreck of the John, Emigrant Ship, on the Manacle Rocks, May 2nd, 1855, page x