abuse
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /əˈbjuːs/
enpr: əbyo͞os'
ipa: /əˈbjus/
ipa: /əˈbjʉs/
rhymes: -uːs
ipa: /əˈbjuːz/
ipa: /əˈbjuz/
enpr: əbyo͞oz'
rhymes: -uːz
ipa: /əˈbjuːs/
enpr: əbyo͞os'
ipa: /əˈbjus/
ipa: /əˈbjʉs/
rhymes: -uːs
Forms: form: abuses
form: abusing
form: abused
form: abused
Etymology: From Middle English abusen, from Middle French abuser, from Latin abūsus (“misused, using up”), perfect active participle of abūtor (“to use up, misuse, consume”), from ab (“from, away from”) + ūtor (“to use”).
Senses: examples: text: He abused his authority.
text: This principle (if we may so abuse the word) shot rapidly into popularity
ref: 1856, James Anthony Froude, History of England from the fall of Wolsey to the defeat of the Spanish Armada, volume 1, published 1870, page 353:
coordinate_terms: misuse#Verb
use#Verb
glosses: To put to a wrong use; to misapply; to use improperly; to use for a wrong purpose or end; to pervert
examples: text: 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.
ref: a. 1990, R. S. Thomas, At It:
synonyms: word: maltreat
word: injure
word: abuse
word: annoy
word: bewound
word: damage
word: damnify
word: dere
word: do damage to
word: do for
word: do ill
word: do violence to
word: forwork
word: grieve
word: harm
word: harrow
word: hurt
word: injure
word: maul
word: misdo
word: put someone in hospital
word: scaith
word: scathe
word: vulnerate
word: wet
word: wound
word: abuse
word: afflict
word: aggrieve
word: do evil
word: do harm
word: do ill
word: ill-treat
word: ill-use
word: make mischief
word: misdo
word: mistreat
word: molest
word: oppress
word: outrage
word: overburden
word: pain
word: persecute
word: run down
word: trample on
word: tread on
word: weigh down
word: weigh heavy on
glosses: To injure; to maltreat; to hurt; to treat with cruelty, especially repeatedly.
examples: text: The […] tellers of news abused the general.
ref: 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XIV, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:
text: But ever and always curse him and abuse him.
ref: 1904, W. B. Yeats, The King's Threshold:
text: So we were angered by this and we could not tolerate this one because prophet Mohammed has been abused so many times in this country. Awolowo abused him sometimes ago saying that he was more successful and popular that Mohammed and Jesus.
ref: 1991, Yakubu Yahaya, quoted in: 2001, Toyin Falola, Violence in Nigeria: The Crisis of Religious Politics and Secular Ideologies, p. 199
text: However, shortages have seen customers yelling at employees, and abusing staff members as they work frantically to keep up with demand.
ref: 2020, “'Our team are here to help, not hurt': Woolworths urge customers not to abuse staff”, in Nine News:
synonyms: word: revile
word: reproach
word: vilify
word: vituperate
word: abuse
word: affront
word: burn
word: carry
word: cut down
word: disrespect
word: dis
word: diss
word: give stick
word: heckle
word: hurt someone's feelings
word: insult
word: lapidate
word: qualifier
word: misbid
word: misrespect
word: misuse
word: offend
word: sledge
word: slight
word: sneap
word: wound
glosses: To attack with coarse language; to insult; to revile; malign; to speak in an offensive manner to or about someone; to disparage.
glosses: 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.
examples: text: Like Angels life was then mens happy cace;
But later ages pride, like corn-fed ſteed,
Abuſd her plenty, and fat ſwolne encreace
To all licentious luſt, and gan exceed
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 16, page 276:
text: This the Holy Scripture teaches, as expreſly as may be; Neither Fornicators, ſays St. Paul, nor Adulterers, nor the Abominable, ſhall inherit the Kingdom of God; cautioning alſo at the ſame time, that we don’t abuſe our ſelves, nor flatter our ſelves in this Reſpect.
ref: 1722, Onania; or, The Heinous Sin of Self-Pollution, 6th edition, London, retrieved 28 Feb 2022, page 26:
text: Through “wantonness,” or just by being “idle and alone,” or by the instruction of intimates, the young learn to abuse themselves without learning how wrong and dangerous it is.
ref: 2003, Thomas W. Laqueur, Solitary Sex: A Cultural History of Masturbation, New York: Zone Books, →ISBN, retrieved 28 Feb 2022, page 14:
glosses: To violate; defile; to rape; (reflexive) to masturbate.
examples: text: Believe me, sir, he hath been abused, grossly abused to you.
ref: 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling:
glosses: Misrepresent; adulterate.
examples: 1651-2, Jeremy Taylor, "Sermon VI, The House of Feasting; or, The Epicures Measures", in The works of Jeremy Taylor, Volume 1, page 283 (1831), edited by Thomas Smart Hughes
When Cyrus had espied Astyages and his fellows coming drunk from a banquet loaden with variety of follies and filthiness, their legs failing them, their eyes red and staring, cozened with a moist cloud and abused by a double object
synonyms: word: con
word: hustle
word: abuse
word: counterfeit
word: deceive
word: dissemble
word: dissimulate
word: feign
word: jiff
word: overreach
word: put on
word: spoof
word: sham
word: trick
glosses: To deceive; to trick; to impose on; misuse the confidence of.
glosses: Disuse.
Derived terms: sense: terms derived from abuse (verb)
word: abusability
sense: terms derived from abuse (verb)
word: abusable
sense: terms derived from abuse (verb)
word: abusage
sense: terms derived from abuse (verb)
word: abusee
sense: terms derived from abuse (verb)
word: abuser
sense: terms derived from abuse (verb)
word: coabuse
sense: terms derived from abuse (verb)
word: disabuse
sense: terms derived from abuse (verb)
word: overabuse
sense: terms derived from abuse (verb)
word: reabuse
sense: terms derived from abuse (verb)
word: unabusing
Related terms: sense: terms related to abuse (verb)
word: abusive
sense: terms related to abuse (verb)
word: abusively
sense: terms related to abuse (verb)
word: abusiveness