misbegotten

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   badly conceived, designed, or produced

   The committee abandoned the misbegotten scheme after its costs became clear.

2. 2
   adj

   wretched, contemptible, or defective in character

   Something abnormal and misbegotten seemed to lie in the creature's very essence.

3. 3
   adj

   born to parents not married to each other, an archaic and now offensive use

   The old play cruelly calls the child misbegotten.

From mis- + begotten, the past participle of beget. It first characterized a person as badly or unlawfully begotten; later it broadened to plans, works, or qualities considered badly conceived, defective, or contemptible.

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