Noun

1. use improperly
2. misuse
3. result verbally
4. maltreatment
   Example: Child abuse

Etymology 1

From French or Old French abus, or Latin abusus.

Pronunciation

• (RP)
  IPA: /əˈbjuːs/
  SAMPA:/@"bju:s/
• (US)
  IPA /əˈbjus/
  SAMPA: /@"bjus/
  Audio (US) ^[?]

Noun

abuse (plural abuses)

1. Improper treatment or usage; application to a wrong or bad purpose; misuse; perversion.
   
   Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty, as well as by the abuses of power.- James Madison
   
   
2. Physical or verbal maltreatment; injury.
3. Sexual assault; violation; rape.
4. An unjust, corrupt or wrongful practice or custom; offense; crime; fault.
5. Coarse, insulting speech; abusive language.
   
   The two parties, after exchanging a good deal of abuse, came to blows. - Thomas Babington Macaulay

Synonyms

• invective
• contumely
• reproach
• scurrility
• insult
• opprobrium

Derived terms

• abusefully
• abuse of distress
• child abuse
• drug abuse
• self-abuse

Etymology 2

From French or Old French abuser, from Latin abusus, past participle stem of abuti, from ab- + uti "to use".

Pronunciation

• (RP)
  IPA: /əˈbjuːz/
  SAMPA: /@"bju:z/
• (US)
  IPA: /əˈbjuz/
  SAMPA: /@"bjuz/
  Audio (US) ^[?]

Verb

to abuse (third-person singular simple present abuses, present participle abusing, simple past and past participle abused)

1. (transitive) To put to a wrong use; to misapply; to use improperly; to misuse; to use for a wrong purpose or end; to pervert; as, to abuse one's authority.
   
   This principle (if one may so abuse the word) shoots rapidly into popularity. - James Anthony Froude
   
   
2. (transitive) To injure; to maltreat; to hurt; to treat with cruelty.
3. (transitive) To rape; to assault; to ravish; to violate.
4. (transitive) To attack with coarse language; to insult; to revile.
5. (transitive) (obsolete) To deceive; to trick; to impose on.
   
   Their eyes red and staring, cozened with a moist cloud, and abused by a double object. - Jeremy Taylor

Synonyms

• maltreat
• injure
• revile
• reproach
• vilify
• vituperate
• asperse
• traduce
• malign

Derived terms

• abusable
• abusage
• abuser

Related terms

• abusive
• abusively
• abusiveness

Anagrams

• Alphagram: abesu
• beaus

This entry is from Wiktionary - Dictionary and thesaurus. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.