abuse.
Improper treatment or usage; application to a wrong or bad purpose; an unjust, corrupt or wrongful practice or custom.
Meaning & usage
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.
Misuse; improper use; perversion.
A delusion; an imposture; misrepresentation; deception.
Coarse, insulting speech; abusive language; language that unjustly or angrily vilifies.
children hurling abuse at each other
Catachresis.
Physical maltreatment; injury; cruel treatment.
Violation; defilement; rape; forcing of undesired sexual activity by one person on another, often on a repeated basis.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English abusen, then from either Old French abus (“improper use”), or from Latin abūsus (“misused, using up”), perfect active participle of abūtor (“make improper use of, consume, abuse”), from ab (“away”) + ūtor (“to use”). Equivalent to ab- + use.
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.
To injure; to maltreat; to hurt; to treat with cruelty, especially repeatedly.
To attack with coarse language; to insult; to revile; malign; to speak in an offensive manner to or about someone; to disparage.
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.
To violate; defile; to rape; (reflexive) to masturbate.
Misrepresent; adulterate.
To deceive; to trick; to impose on; misuse the confidence of.
Disuse.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English abusen, from Middle French abuser, from Latin abūsus (“misused, using up”), perfect active participle of abūtor (“to use up, misuse, consume”), from ab (“from, away from”) + ūtor (“to use”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.