misuse

Noun

misuse (countable and uncountable, plural misuses)

1. An incorrect, improper or unlawful use of something.
   • The Queen may be celebrating her jubilee but the Queen's English Society, which has railed against the misuse and deterioration of the English language, is to fold.2012 June 4, Lewis Smith, “Queen’s English Society says enuf is enough, innit?: Society formed 40 years ago to protect language against poor spelling and grammar closes because too few people care”...

Verb

IPA/mɪsˈjuːz/

misuse (third-person singular simple present misuses, present participle misusing, simple past and past participle misused or (obsolete) misust)

1. (transitive) To use (something) incorrectly.
2. (transitive) To abuse or mistreat (something or someone).
3. (transitive) To rape (a woman); later more generally, to sexually abuse (someone).
   • “If that is true she would be the first case I have ever heard of, as most female captives are misused by the entire tribe.”2013, Philipp Meyer, The Son, Simon & Schuster, published 2014, page 326

   Synonyms:

   abuse, outrage, violate, constuprate, defile, defoul, dishonour, force, oppress, pollute

4. (obsolete, transitive) To abuse verbally, to insult.
   • Socrates was brought upon the stage by Aristophanes, and misused to his face: but he laughed, as if it concerned him not […].1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II...