misbegotten

misbegotten
adjective
mis·;be·;got·;ten ;mis-bi-;g;-t;n
Synonyms of misbegotten
1
dated : unlawfully conceived : born to parents not married to each other
a misbegotten child
2
a
: having a disreputable or improper origin : ill-conceived
antiquated and misbegotten tax laws
—R. M. Blough
b
: contemptible
a misbegotten scoundrel
c
: deformed
The road brought you to a desert place among ruins, where was a door in a hillside, and hard by the door a misbegotten pine.
—Robert Louis Stevenson


Did you know?
In the beginning, there was begietan, and begietan begot beyeten; then in the days of Middle English beyeten begot begeten. All of the Old English and Middle English ancestors above basically meant the same thing as the modern beget—that is, "to father" or "to produce as an effect or outgrowth." That linguistic line, combined with the prefix mis- (meaning "wrongly" or "badly"), brought forth misbegotten. While the word has carried several meanings over the centuries, including "contemptible" (as in "a misbegotten scoundrel"), today it most often describes things—such as beliefs, projects, or adventures—that are poorly planned or thought out.

Synonyms
baseborn
illegitimate
natural
spurious
supposititious
unfathered
Examples of misbegotten in a Sentence
a misbegotten child who never knew his father
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Claude has summoned Taverner into his office for the sort of misbegotten PowerPoint presentation that’s going to bore her to tears.
—Scott Tobias, Vulture, 2 Oct. 2024
Ranking Coppola’s 23 features — his 1962 soft-core Tonight for Sure is not included, nor is his misbegotten New York Stories short feature or the Disney attraction Captain EO — was a difficult proposition.
—Scott Tobias, Vulture, 27 Sep. 2024
Accepting a role in this misbegotten exercise was a giant strategic mistake, one driven less by the basic needs of Palestinian nationalism than the personal interests of Palestinian leaders.
—Yousef Munayyer, Foreign Affairs, 15 Oct. 2019
The misbegotten fusions of spending and regulation and of business and government confound free enterprise and capitalism.
—Clyde Wayne Crews Jr., Forbes, 6 Sep. 2024