abuse
Forms
- Plural
- abuses
- present (v1)
- abuse
- past (v2)
- abused
- past participle (v3)
- abused
- present participle
- abusing
- 3rd person singular
- abuses
Definitions
1.Improper treatment or usage; application to a wrong or bad purpose; an unjust, corrupt or wrongful practice or custom.
- Dickens was careful to castigate abuses which were being reformed.
- All abuse, whether physical, verbal, psychological or sexual, is bad.
2.Misuse; improper use; perversion.
- Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty, as well as by the abuses of power.
3.Coarse, insulting speech; abusive language; language that unjustly or angrily vilifies.
- The two parties, after exchanging a good deal of abuse, came to blows.
- The pair – aged 14 and 15 years old – have been accused of assaulting and shouting abuse at four people in central Southampton, police have said.
- But he and all the southerners who indulge in this abuse in the newspapers should realize that this will not enable us to find a solution to our problem but will merely aggravate it.
4.Physical maltreatment; injury; cruel treatment.
1.To put to a wrong use; to misapply; to use improperly; to use for a wrong purpose or end; to pervert
2.To injure; to maltreat; to hurt; to treat with cruelty, especially repeatedly.
- And I would have things to say to this God at the judgement, storming at him, as Job stormed with the eloquence of the abused heart.
- The trailer for the documentary about killer Luka Magnotta doesn’t show anything graphic, but it contains clips of him handling kittens. The trailer goes on to explain that Magnotta gruesomely abuses these kittens.
3.To attack with coarse language; to insult; to revile; malign; to speak in an offensive manner to or about someone; to disparage.
- But ever and always curse him and abuse him.
- However, shortages have seen customers yelling at employees, and abusing staff members as they work frantically to keep up with demand.
- The […] tellers of news abused the general.
4.To imbibe a drug for a purpose other than it was intended; to intentionally take more of a drug than was prescribed for recreational reasons; to take illegal drugs habitually.
Frequency
Overall
Common· #1716
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Uncommon
- General reading & writing
- Common
- Academic
- Uncommon
- Literature
- Rare
Etymology
From Middle English abusen, then from either Old French abus (“improper use”), or from Latin abūsus (“misused, using up”), perfect active participle of abūtor (“make improper use of, consume, abuse”), from ab (“away”) + ūtor (“to use”).
Equivalent to ab- + use.