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Depending on where the "wrong" cartridge is in the barrel, the result can be nothing more than high pressure, or the barrel can be bulged or split and the gun destroyed.
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9mm will fire in a pistol chambered for .40. The case mouth bells out, and of course, the bullet keyholes something awful. Despite that, I see people do it about twice a month at the range.
Lesson #1: when you're shooting multiple guns in a session, keep the ammunition from getting mixed up.
In another case, I saw a guy bulge the barrel on a Baer 1911. We were shooting outdoors, and he dropped a round in the grass while loading his magazine. He missed the round he meant to pick up, and instead picked up and loaded a round of .40. The barrel looked just like a squib had been followed by a live round. The locking lugs in the slide were also chipped.
Lesson #2: if you drop a cartridge,
let it go. It's not worth wrecking the gun.
While we're talking about the whole confusion of 9mm cartridge naming, let us take a moment to remember the 9mm Glisenti, 9mm Police, 9mm Bergmann, 9mm Browning Long, and 9mm Steyr.