Misshapen means badly formed or having an irregular, distorted shape. A misshapen cookie might have spread too much in the oven, making it lumpy and uneven instead of round. A misshapen basketball that's been left outside too long might have developed flat spots that make it bounce unpredictably.

The word applies to anything that doesn't have the shape it's supposed to have. A potter might accidentally create a misshapen bowl with one side higher than the other. Tree branches can grow misshapen when something blocks their normal growth. Even letters can be misshapen: if you write a capital “B” where the top bump is huge and the bottom bump is tiny, that “B” looks misshapen.

Misshapen things usually still work, just not as well as they should. That misshapen cookie still tastes fine. The misshapen basketball can probably still be used for practice shots. The word focuses on appearance and form rather than whether something is completely broken or useless. When you call something misshapen, you're noting that its shape is wrong or irregular, not that it's destroyed.