mess up vs mishandle

mess up

verb
  • To make a mistake; to do something incorrectly; to perform poorly. 

  • To damage; injure. 

  • To manhandle; beat up; rough up. 

  • To make a mess of; to untidy, disorder, soil, or muss. 

  • To botch, bungle; to perform poorly on. 

  • To cause a problem with; to introduce an error or mistake in; to make muddled or confused; spoil; ruin. 

  • To cause (another person) to make unwanted mistakes in a given task, usually through distraction or obnoxious behavior. 

  • To discombobulate, utterly confuse, or confound psychologically; to throw into a state of mental disarray. 

mishandle

verb
  • To deal with a situation incorrectly or ineffectively; to make a mistake in handling a situation. 

  • To manipulate something roughly, causing physical damage. 

noun
  • Improper, wrong, or bad usage or treatment; abuse. 

  • Rough manipulation which causes physical damage. 

  • Ineffective or incorrect deal. 

How often have the words mess up and mishandle occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )