self-abuses

Noun

self-abuse (countable and uncountable, plural self-abuses)

1. (obsolete) Self-deception.
   • Come, wee’l to ſleepe: My ſtrange & ſelf-abuſe
     Is the initiate feare, that wants hard vse:
     We are yet but yong indeed.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
2. Physical or verbal maltreatment of oneself.
   • No man hath any warrant for self-abuse: We are not nostri, sed alieni juris; and God will see we shall not destroy his work besides his will.1653, Edward Waterhouse, Two Brief Meditations, London: Thomas Maxey, retrieved 28 Feb 2022, page 58
   1. Injury inflicted deliberately upon oneself, especially resulting from a mental disorder.
      • If such conversion surgery is not readily available, which is normally the case, owing to the many legal dangers attendant to the operation(s), the transsexual may well attempt self-castration, other mutilations and even suicide, or fall into a reactive psychosis. Such self-abuse is apparently not...1970, David W. Meyers, The Human Body and Law: A Medico-legal Study, Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 48
3. (dated, euphemistic, now frequently ironic or humorous) Masturbation, regarded as sinful or harmful.
   • For which reaſon it is that a Gleet is always more or leſs difficult to Cure, as it is of greater or leſs Continuance, or is occaſioned by more or leſs Frequent ſelf Abuſes, or a more or leſs virulent Humor which gave the preceeding Infection; by every one of which cauſes the Glands are always more...1718, A Rational Account of the Cause, Nature, and Cure of Gleets, London, retrieved 28 Feb 2022, page 32

   Synonyms:

   self-pollution, beat one's meat, celebrating Palm Sunday, choking the chicken, ham shank, hand shandy, Hand Solo, ipsation, jacking off, jerking off

See all 6 meanings of self-abuse