| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| abuse |
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| SYLLABICATION: | a·buse |
| PRONUNCIATION: |   -by z |
| TRANSITIVE VERB: | Inflected forms: a·bused, a·bus·ing, a·bus·es
1. To use wrongly or improperly; misuse: abuse alcohol; abuse a privilege. 2. To hurt or injure by maltreatment; ill-use. 3. To force sexual activity on; rape or molest. 4. To assail with contemptuous, coarse, or insulting words; revile. 5. Obsolete To deceive or trick. | | NOUN: | (-bys)1. Improper use or handling; misuse: abuse of authority; drug abuse. 2. Physical maltreatment: spousal abuse. 3. Sexual abuse. 4. An unjust or wrongful practice: a government that commits abuses against its citizens. 5. Insulting or coarse language: verbal abuse. | | IDIOM: | abuse oneself Vulgar To masturbate. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English abusen, from Old French abuser, from abus, improper use, from Latin ab sus, past participle of abt , to misuse : ab-, away; see ab–1 + t, to use. | | OTHER FORMS: | a·buser —NOUN
| | SYNONYMS: | abuse, misuse, mistreat, ill-treat, maltreat These verbs mean to treat wrongfully or harmfully. Abuse applies to injurious or improper treatment: “We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us” (Aldo Leopold). Misuse stresses incorrect or unknowledgeable handling: “How often misused words generate misleading thoughts” (Herbert Spencer). Mistreat, ill-treat, and maltreat all share the sense of inflicting injury, often intentionally: “I had seen many more patients die from being mistreated for consumption than from consumption itself” (Earl of Lytton). The army had orders not to ill-treat the prisoners. “When we misuse [a language other than our native language], we are in fact trying to reduce its element of foreignness. We let ourselves maltreat it as though it naturally belonged to us” (Manchester Guardian Weekly).
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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