In this paper, we propose a sliding mode-based controller for a class of single-input single-output nonlinear systems with mismatched uncertainties whose variation bounds are not given. The concept of multiple-surface sliding control is used to cope with the uncertainty mismatch problem, and the function approximation technique is introduced to transform the uncertainties into a finite combination of orthonormal basis functions. An adaptive controller can thus be designed using the Lyapunov approach to achieve output error convergence and boundedness of all signals. Simulation results of a benchmark problem have verified the performance and feasibility of the proposed control strategy. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.