Abuse
[ə'bjuːz] or [ə'bjus]
Definition
(noun.) a rude expression intended to offend or hurt; 'when a student made a stupid mistake he spared them no abuse'; 'they yelled insults at the visiting team'.
(verb.) use wrongly or improperly or excessively; 'Her husband often abuses alcohol'; 'while she was pregnant, she abused drugs'.
(verb.) use foul or abusive language towards; 'The actress abused the policeman who gave her a parking ticket'; 'The angry mother shouted at the teacher'.
Checked by Eli--From WordNet
Definition
(v. t.) To put to a wrong use; to misapply; to misuse; to put to a bad use; to use for a wrong purpose or end; to pervert; as, to abuse inherited gold; to make an excessive use of; as, to abuse one's authority.
(v. t.) To use ill; to maltreat; to act injuriously to; to punish or to tax excessively; to hurt; as, to abuse prisoners, to abuse one's powers, one's patience.
(v. t.) To revile; to reproach coarsely; to disparage.
(v. t.) To dishonor.
(v. t.) To violate; to ravish.
(v. t.) To deceive; to impose on.
(v. t.) Improper treatment or use; application to a wrong or bad purpose; misuse; as, an abuse of our natural powers; an abuse of civil rights, or of privileges or advantages; an abuse of language.
(v. t.) Physical ill treatment; injury.
(v. t.) A corrupt practice or custom; offense; crime; fault; as, the abuses in the civil service.
(v. t.) Vituperative words; coarse, insulting speech; abusive language; virulent condemnation; reviling.
(v. t.) Violation; rape; as, abuse of a female child.
Checked by Chiquita
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. [1]. Misuse, misemploy, misapply, pervert, prostitute, desecrate, profane, make an ill use of.[2]. Maltreat, harm, injure, hurt, ill-treat, ill-use.[3]. Revile, reproach, vilify, slander, traduce, defame, asperse, malign, blacken, disparage, berate, rate, upbraid, calumniate, lampoon, satirize, lash, PASQUINADE, VITUPERATE, rail at, sneer at, speak ill of, accuse falsely, damn with faint praise.[4]. Violate, outrage, ravish, deflour.
n. [1]. Misapplication, misuse, misemployment, profanation, prostitution, desecration, perversion, ill-use.[2]. Maltreatment, outrage, ill-treatment, bad treatment.[3]. Corrupt practice.[4]. Vituperation, railing, reviling, contumely, obloquy, opprobrium, insult, scurrility, ribaldry, JAW, foul invective, rude reproach.
Inputed by Liza
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Injure, damage, spoil, maltreat, treat-all, ill-use, ill-treat, retile,scandalize, disparage, reproach, upbraid, asperse, malign, slander, vituperate,prostitute, defame, pervert, misuse, misemploy, vilify
ANT:Tend, protect, conserve, consider, regard, shield, cherish, praise, extol,laud, vindicate, panegyrize, respect
SYN:Mistreatment, invective, ill-treatment, opprobrium, scurrility, vituperation,ribaldry, obloquy, reproach, insolence, misusage, ill-usage
ANT:Good-usage, good-treatment, kindness, praise, deference, respect
Checker: Rowena
Definition
v.t. to use wrongly: to pervert: to revile: to violate.—ns. Abuse (ab-ūs′) ill use: misapplication: reproach: vituperation; Abū′sion (Spens.) abuse: deception: reproach.—adj. Abus′ive containing or practising abuse: full of abuses: vituperative.—adv. Abus′ively.—n. Abus′iveness.
Checked by Letitia
Unserious Contents or Definition
To dream of abusing a person, means that you will be unfortunate in your affairs, losing good money through over-bearing persistency in business relations with others. To feel yourself abused, you will be molested in your daily pursuits by the enmity of others. For a young woman to dream that she hears abusive language, foretells that she will fall under the ban of some person's jealousy and envy. If she uses the language herself, she will meet with unexpected rebuffs, that may fill her with mortification and remorse for her past unworthy conduct toward friends.
Checked by Dora
Examples
- He always showed a generous and kindly spirit toward the Southern people, and I never heard him abuse an enemy. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- You abuse Moore for defending his mill. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- And the other women--my best friends--well, they use me or abuse me; but they don't care a straw what happens to me. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- You abuse Mr. Helstone for everything he does. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- The melon of Castile is for self abuse. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- That sounds a dangerous maxim, sir; because one can see at once that it is liable to abuse. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- What we should use, we let him abuse, and the corruption of the best things, as Hume remarked, produces the worst. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- Bob, as your friend no doubt, stands up for you, whom he must so often hear abused. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- He is a poor abused! Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- He has been most shamefully abused, and most unjustly and most basely driven away, and I am the cause of it! Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- You would not have them abused; but you don't want to have anything to do with them yourselves. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- I didn't know how much till she abused you, began Meg. Louisa May Alcott. Little Women.
- But generation after generation the spirit was abused by priests and rulers. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- But I trust, sir,' said Pott, 'that I have never abused the enormous power I wield. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- Talk of the _abuses_ of slavery! Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- If people will print their abuses of one another, let them do it in little pamphlets, and distribute them where they think proper. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- You must concede that there are abuses, Hawley, said Mr. Hackbutt, foreseeing some political disagreement with his family lawyer. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- Walter's introduction in which he says that The Social Contract _showed to those who were eager to be convinced_ that no power was legitimate which was guilty of abuses. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- Ah, my love, my love, he said, it is in the subtle poison of such abuses to breed such diseases. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- That such abuses were far from being uncommon, the ancient history of every country in Europe bears witness. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- There are many abuses. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- Were they abusing me, Rosy? Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- After abusing you so abominably to your face, I could have no scruple in abusing you to all your relations. Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.
- But who have you heard abusing the masters? Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- We should be quarrelling, abusing, avoiding one another. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- When dinner was over, she returned directly to Jane, and Miss Bingley began abusing her as soon as she was out of the room. Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.
- I hide it as well as I can by abusing everybody myself. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- This was abusing their power and commencing a tyranny. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
Typed by Claus