abuse

Noun

abuse (countable and uncountable, plural abuses)

1. Improper treatment or usage; application to a wrong or bad purpose; an unjust, corrupt or wrongful practice or custom.
   • human rights abuses
   • All abuse, whether physical, verbal, psychological or sexual, is bad.

   Synonyms:

   abusage

2. Misuse; improper use; perversion.
   • Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty, as well as by the abuses of power.1788, James Madison, Federalist, Number 63
   • 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...2012 March-April, Jan Sapp, “Race Finished”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 05 Sep 2015, page 164
3. (obsolete) A delusion; an imposture; misrepresentation; deception.
   • Or is it some abuse, and no such thing?1601, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, act IV, scene VII
4. Coarse, insulting speech; abusive language; language that unjustly or angrily vilifies.
   • children hurling abuse at each other
   • The two parties, after exchanging a good deal of abuse, came to blows.1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The history of England: from the accession of James the Second, volume 9, page 153

   Synonyms:

   invective, contumely, reproach, scurrility, insult, opprobrium

5. (archaic) Catachresis.

   Synonyms:

   abusio

6. Physical maltreatment; injury; cruel treatment.
7. Violation; defilement; rape; forcing of undesired sexual activity by one person on another, often on a repeated basis.

Verb

UK/əˈbjuːz/US/əˈbjuz/

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 use for a wrong purpose or end; to pervert
   • He abused his authority.
   • This principle (if we may so abuse the word) shot rapidly into popularity1856, James Anthony Froude, History of England from the fall of Wolsey to the defeat of the Spanish Armada, volume 1, published 1870, page 353
2. (transitive) To injure; to maltreat; to hurt; to treat with cruelty, especially repeatedly.
   • 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.1883, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, Karma Sutra
   • 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.a. 1990, R. S. Thomas, At It

   Synonyms:

   maltreat, injure, annoy, bewound, damage, damnify, dere, do damage to, do for, do ill

3. (transitive) To attack with coarse language; to insult; to revile; malign; to speak in an offensive manner to or about someone; to disparage.
   • The […] tellers of news abused the general.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...
   • But ever and always curse him and abuse him.1904, W. B. Yeats, The King's Threshold

   Synonyms:

   misuse, vitriol, vituperate, affront, burn, carry, cut down, disrespect, dis, diss

4. (transitive) 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.
5. (archaic, transitive) To violate; defile; to rape; (reflexive) to masturbate.
   • 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 exceed1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 16, page 276
   • 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.1722, Onania; or, The Heinous Sin of Self-Pollution, 6th edition, London, retrieved 28 Feb 2022, page 26

   Synonyms:

   outrage, ravish, self-abuse, touch oneself, constuprate, defile, defoul, dishonour, force, misuse

6. (obsolete, transitive) Misrepresent; adulterate.
   • Believe me, sir, he hath been abused, grossly abused to you.1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
7. (obsolete, transitive) To deceive; to trick; to impose on; misuse the confidence of.
   • 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...

   Synonyms:

   con, hustle, beglammer, counterfeit, deceive, catch, trap into, dissemble, dissimulate, feign

8. (Scotland, obsolete, transitive) Disuse.