abuse

Improper treatment or usage; application to a wrong or bad purpose; an unjust, corrupt or wrongful practice or custom.countableuncountable

• human rights abuses
• All abuse, whether physical, verbal, psychological or sexual, is bad.

Misuse; improper use; perversion.countableuncountable

• Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty, as well as by the abuses of power.

A delusion; an imposture; misrepresentation; deception.countableobsoleteuncountable

• Or is it some abuse, and no such thing?

Coarse, insulting speech; abusive language; language that unjustly or angrily vilifies.countableuncountable

• children hurling abuse at each other

Catachresis.archaiccountableuncountable

Physical maltreatment; injury; cruel treatment.countableuncountable

Violation; defilement; rape; forcing of undesired sexual activity by one person on another, often on a repeated basis.countableuncountable

To put to a wrong use; to misapply; to use improperly; to use for a wrong purpose or end; to perverttransitive

• He abused his authority.

To injure; to maltreat; to hurt; to treat with cruelty, especially repeatedly.transitive

• 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.
• 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.

To attack with coarse language; to insult; to revile; malign; to speak in an offensive manner to or about someone; to disparage.transitive

• So we were angered by this and we could not tolerate this one because prophet Mohammed has been abused so many times in this country. Awolowo abused him sometimes ago saying that he was more successful and popular that Mohammed and Jesus.

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.transitive

To violate; defile; to rape; (reflexive) to masturbate.archaictransitive

• 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 exceed
• Through “wantonness,” or just by being “idle and alone,” or by the instruction of intimates, the young learn to abuse themselves without learning how wrong and dangerous it is.

Misrepresent; adulterate.obsoletetransitive

• Believe me, sir, he hath been abused, grossly abused to you.

To deceive; to trick; to impose on; misuse the confidence of.obsoletetransitive

• 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

Disuse.Scotlandobsoletetransitive