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Abuse   /əbjˈus/  /əbjˈuz/   Listen
noun
Abuse  n.  
1.
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. "Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty, as well as by the abuses of power."
2.
Physical ill treatment; injury. "Rejoice... at the abuse of Falstaff."
3.
A corrupt practice or custom; offense; crime; fault; as, the abuses in the civil service. "Abuse after disappeared without a struggle.."
4.
Vituperative words; coarse, insulting speech; abusive language; virulent condemnation; reviling. "The two parties, after exchanging a good deal of abuse, came to blows."
5.
Violation; rape; as, abuse of a female child. (Obs.) "Or is it some abuse, and no such thing?"
Abuse of distress (Law), a wrongful using of an animal or chattel distrained, by the distrainer.
Synonyms: Invective; contumely; reproach; scurrility; insult; opprobrium. Abuse, Invective. Abuse is generally prompted by anger, and vented in harsh and unseemly words. It is more personal and coarse than invective. Abuse generally takes place in private quarrels; invective in writing or public discussions. Invective may be conveyed in refined language and dictated by indignation against what is blameworthy.


verb
Abuse  v. t.  (past & past part. abused; pres. part. abusing)  
1.
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. "This principle (if one may so abuse the word) shoots rapidly into popularity."
2.
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.
3.
To revile; to reproach coarsely; to disparage. "The... tellers of news abused the general."
4.
To dishonor. "Shall flight abuse your name?"
5.
To violate; to ravish.
6.
To deceive; to impose on. (Obs.) "Their eyes red and staring, cozened with a moist cloud, and abused by a double object."
Synonyms: To maltreat; injure; revile; reproach; vilify; vituperate; asperse; traduce; malign.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Abuse" Quotes from Famous Books



... pornography. See Osborne v. Ohio, 495 U.S. 103, 111 (1990) (holding that a state "may constitutionally proscribe the possession and viewing of child pornography"); Ferber, 458 U.S. at 757, 763 (noting that "[t]he prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse of children constitutes a government objective of surpassing importance," and holding that "child pornography [is] a category of material outside the protection of the First Amendment"). Thus, a public library's use of software filters survives strict ...
— Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) Ruling • United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
... began to abuse the swineherd. "You precious idiot," he cried, "what have you brought this man to town for? Have we not tramps and beggars enough already to pester us as we sit at meat? Do you think it a small thing that such people ...
— The Odyssey • Homer
... words Dora began to sob passionately, the servants, one and all, to comfort her, or to abuse Mostyn, and in the height of the hubbub Justice Manningham entered with two ...
— The Man Between • Amelia E. Barr
... the party leaders were told. "If he would abuse the other side a little more, and stick in a little tinsel and calcium ...
— The Honorable Peter Stirling and What People Thought of Him • Paul Leicester Ford
... disgraced thing. We occupy separate apartments; and though we sit together at the same table, words rarely pass between us. Occasionally he comes home under the influence of wine, and then his abuse of me is fearful to think of. If any thing could waken a thoughtless creature sleeping on enchanted ...
— The Allen House - or Twenty Years Ago and Now • T. S. Arthur


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