abuse
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: derivation
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.
Base: use
Affixes: ab-
Inflected forms:
form: abuses
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: abuses
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: abusing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: abused
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: abused
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: Improper treatment or usage; application to a wrong or bad purpose; an unjust, corrupt or wrongful practice or custom.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: human rights abuses
All abuse, whether physical, verbal, psychological or sexual, is bad.
Dickens was careful to castigate abuses which were being reformed.
gloss: Misuse; improper use; perversion.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty, as well as by the abuses of power.
Few concepts are as emotionally charged as that of race. The word conjures up a mixture of associations—culture, ethnicity, genetics, subjugation, exclusion and persecution. But is the tragic history of efforts to define groups of people by race really a matter of the misuse of science, the abuse of a valid biological concept?
RDG explains: "From April 1 2026, the following tickets, Anytime, Off-Peak, Day Travelcards and most Ranger and Rover tickets, will no longer be refundable on the day they become valid for travel." It calls the £40m it thinks it loses "refund abuse", which it explains as "refunds on tickets that have been used but not scanned or endorsed, where a customer falsely states that they did not travel". I'm sure such abuse takes place (and that it's done by passengers). But RDG is taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut and punishing many millions of honest passengers by making tickets more restrictive.
gloss: A delusion; an imposture; misrepresentation; deception.
pos: noun
tags: countable
obsolete
uncountable
examples: Or is it some abuse, and no such thing?
gloss: Coarse, insulting speech; abusive language; language that unjustly or angrily vilifies.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: children hurling abuse at each other
The two parties, after exchanging a good deal of abuse, came to blows.
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.
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.
gloss: Catachresis.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
countable
uncountable
gloss: Physical maltreatment; injury; cruel treatment.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: Violation; defilement; rape; forcing of undesired sexual activity by one person on another, often on a repeated basis.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: To put to a wrong use; to misapply; to use improperly; to use for a wrong purpose or end; to pervert
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: He abused his authority.
This principle (if we may so abuse the word) shot rapidly into popularity
gloss: To injure; to maltreat; to hurt; to treat with cruelty, especially repeatedly.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Blows with the fist should be given on the back of the woman, which she is sitting on the lap of the man, and she should give blows in return, abusing the man as if she were angry, and making the cooing and the weeping sounds.
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.
gloss: To attack with coarse language; to insult; to revile; malign; to speak in an offensive manner to or about someone; to disparage.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The […] tellers of news abused the general.
But ever and always curse him and abuse him.
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.
However, shortages have seen customers yelling at employees, and abusing staff members as they work frantically to keep up with demand.
gloss: 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.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To violate; defile; to rape; (reflexive) to masturbate.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
transitive
examples: 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
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.
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.
gloss: Misrepresent; adulterate.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: Believe me, sir, he hath been abused, grossly abused to you.
gloss: To deceive; to trick; to impose on; misuse the confidence of.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
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
gloss: Disuse.
pos: verb
tags: Scotland
obsolete
transitive
Translations:
lang: Arabic
word: اِسَاءَة اِسْتِخْدَام
lang: Arabic
word: سوء استخدام
roman: sūʔ esteḵdām
lang: Armenian
word: չարաշահում
roman: čʻarašahum
lang: Azerbaijani
word: sui-istifadə
lang: Belarusian
word: злаўжы́так
roman: zlawžýtak
lang: Belarusian
word: злоўжыва́нне
roman: zlowžyvánnje
lang: Bulgarian
word: злоупотре́ба
roman: zloupotréba
lang: Catalan
word: abús
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 濫權 /滥权
roman: lànquán
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 濫用 /滥用
roman: lànyòng
lang: Danish
word: misbrug
lang: Danish
word: vanrøgt
lang: Finnish
word: väärinkäyttö
lang: French
word: abus
lang: Galician
word: abuso
lang: German
word: Missbrauch
lang: Greek
word: κατάχρηση
roman: katáchrisi
lang: Hebrew
word: ניצול לרעה
roman: nitzúl l'rá'a
lang: Hindi
word: दुरूपयोग
roman: durūpyog
lang: Hungarian
word: visszaélés
lang: Indonesian
word: penyalahgunaan
lang: Italian
word: abuso
lang: Japanese
word: 濫用
roman: ran'yō
lang: Korean
word: 남용
roman: namyong
lang: Korean
word: 람용
roman: ramyong
lang: Latin
word: abūsiō
lang: Malay
word: penyalahgunaan
lang: Maltese
word: abbuż
lang: Māori
word: raukotinga
lang: Norwegian Bokmål
word: misbruk
lang: Norwegian Nynorsk
word: misbruk
lang: Polish
word: nadużycie
lang: Portuguese
word: abuso
lang: Romanian
word: abuz
lang: Russian
word: злоупотребле́ние
roman: zloupotreblénije
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: злоупотреба
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: zloupotreba
lang: Spanish
word: abuso
lang: Swedish
word: missbruk
lang: Tagalog
word: abuso
lang: Turkish
word: istismar
lang: Turkish
word: suistimal
lang: Ukrainian
word: зловжива́ння
roman: zlovžyvánnja
lang: Volapük
word: migeb