Free Translator Free Translator
Translators Dictionaries Courses Other
Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




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


Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words


Share |




"Abuse" Quotes from Famous Books



... he spoke, the emperor kept advancing until he came close upon the kettle and its tempting contents; but the peasant-woman pushed him rudely back, and thrusting her broad person between himself and the coveted pot, she looked defiance at him, and broke out into a torrent of abuse. ...
— Joseph II. and His Court • L. Muhlbach
... most discordant, it was impossible to eradicate from the minds of any order the vast and stirring memories of the past. New rights might, indeed, be claimed; but it was not alleged that there had been any abuse of the old. Nothing had occurred to weaken the esteem with which the lower ranks were accustomed to regard the ancient aristocracy of the country; and accordingly, throughout the whole of that protracted contest, fervid and determined as it was, there was less rancour shown than might ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 347, September, 1844 • Various
... O sun that warms me! Am I not thine to use and abuse at thy sweet pleasure? Pour salt upon the heart thou woundest; since it is thy hand I'll never murmur a complaint. But heed me—heed my words; or since words are of no account with thee, then heed his deeds which I am drawing to thy tardy notice. Heed ...
— The Sea-Hawk • Raphael Sabatini
... Whose Fabrick tho' 'twas built of Wood, Had many Springs and Winters stood; When sturdy Oaks, and lofty Pines Were level'd with (cc) Musmillion Vines, And Plants eradicated were, By Hurricanes into the air; There with good Punch and Apple Juice, We spent our Hours without abuse; Till Midnight in her sable Vest, Persuaded Gods and Men to rest; And with a pleasing kind surprize, Indulg'd soft Slumbers to my Eyes. Fierce (dd) AEthon courser of the Sun, Had half his Race ...
— The Sot-weed Factor: or, A Voyage to Maryland • Ebenezer Cook
... writers have suffered more injustice in popular estimation than Chesterfield. Even putting aside the abuse by which, as above mentioned, Johnson showed (on Fluellen's principles convincingly) that he had more in common with the Goddess Juno than the J in both their names—that is to say an insanabile vulnus ...
— A Letter Book - Selected with an Introduction on the History and Art of Letter-Writing • George Saintsbury


More quotes...


Copyright © 2025 Free-Translator.com