abuse

plural abuses

1. countableuncountableImproper treatment or usage; application to a wrong or bad purpose; an unjust, corrupt or wrongful practice or custom.First known use around 1350 to 1470

   human rights abuses

   2 more examples

   All abuse, whether physical, verbal, psychological or sexual, is bad.

   Dickens was careful to castigate abuses which were being reformed.

   1948, W. R. Inge, The End of an Age and Other Essays

   Synonyms: abusage

2. countableuncountableMisuse; improper use; perversion.First known use mid-16th c.

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

   1788, James Madison, Federalist, Number 63

   2 more examples

   Few concepts are as emotionally charged as that of race. The word conjures up a mixture of associations—culture, ethnicity, genetics, subjugation, exclusion and persecution. But is the tragic history of efforts to define groups of people by race really a matter of the misuse of science, the abuse of a valid biological concept?

   2012 March-April, Jan Sapp, “Race Finished”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 05 Sep 2015, page 164

   RDG explains: "From April 1 2026, the following tickets, Anytime, Off-Peak, Day Travelcards and most Ranger and Rover tickets, will no longer be refundable on the day they become valid for travel." It calls the £40m it thinks it loses "refund abuse", which it explains as "refunds on tickets that have been used but not scanned or endorsed, where a customer falsely states that they did not travel". I'm sure such abuse takes place (and that it's done by passengers). But RDG is taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut and punishing many millions of honest passengers by making tickets more restrictive.

   2026 March 18, Philip Haigh, “Tickets please: 2p per scan to offset fraudulent refunds?”, in RAIL, number 1057, page 48

3. countableobsoleteuncountableA delusion; an imposture; misrepresentation; deception.First known use mid-16th–mid-17th c.

   Or is it some abuse, and no such thing?

   1601, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, act IV, scene VII

4. countableuncountableCoarse, insulting speech; abusive language; language that unjustly or angrily vilifies.First known use mid-16th c.

   children hurling abuse at each other

   3 more examples

   The two parties, after exchanging a good deal of abuse, came to blows.

   1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The history of England: from the accession of James the Second, volume 9, page 153

   But he and all the southerners who indulge in this abuse in the newspapers should realize that this will not enable us to find a solution to our problem but will merely aggravate it.

   1950 February 11, Alhaji Na-Alhaji, Gaskiya Fa Ti Kwabo

   The pair – aged 14 and 15 years old – have been accused of assaulting and shouting abuse at four people in central Southampton, police have said.

   2020, “Coronavirus: Teenage girls arrested after 'abusing Chinese people wearing face masks in racially-motivated attack'”, in The Independent

   Synonyms: invective, contumely, reproach, scurrility, insult, opprobrium

5. archaiccountableuncountableCatachresis.First known use late 16th c.

   Synonyms: abusio

6. countableuncountablePhysical maltreatment; injury; cruel treatment.First known use late 16th c.
7. countableuncountableViolation; defilement; rape; forcing of undesired sexual activity by one person on another, often on a repeated basis.First known use late 16th c.

present singular third person abuses · participle present abusing · participle past abused · past abused

1. transitiveTo put to a wrong use; to misapply; to use improperly; to use for a wrong purpose or end; to pervertFirst known use around 1350 to 1470.

   He abused his authority.

   1 more example

   This principle (if we may so abuse the word) shot rapidly into popularity

   1856, James Anthony Froude, History of England from the fall of Wolsey to the defeat of the Spanish Armada, volume 1, published 1870, page 353

2. transitiveTo injure; to maltreat; to hurt; to treat with cruelty, especially repeatedly.First known use mid-16th c.

   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.

   a. 1990, R. S. Thomas, At It

   2 more examples

   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.

   1883, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, Karma Sutra

   The trailer for the documentary about killer Luka Magnotta doesn’t show anything graphic, but it contains clips of him handling kittens. The trailer goes on to explain that Magnotta gruesomely abuses these kittens.

   2020 February 6, Alicia Lee, “Netflix is finally letting you stop previews from automatically playing. Here’s how to do it”, in CNN Business, archived from the original on 20 Dec 2025

   Synonyms: maltreat, injure, annoy, bewound, damage, damnify, dere, do damage to

3. transitiveTo attack with coarse language; to insult; to revile; malign; to speak in an offensive manner to or about someone; to disparage.First known use early 17th c.

   But ever and always curse him and abuse him.

   1904, W. B. Yeats, The King's Threshold

   3 more examples

   The […] tellers of news abused the general.

   1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XIV, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC

   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.

   1991, Yakubu Yahaya, quoted in: 2001, Toyin Falola, Violence in Nigeria: The Crisis of Religious Politics and Secular Ideologies, p. 199

   However, shortages have seen customers yelling at employees, and abusing staff members as they work frantically to keep up with demand.

   2020 March 17, Freya Noble, “'Our team are here to help, not hurt': Woolworths urge customers not to abuse staff”, in Nine News, archived from the original on 16 Apr 2023

   Synonyms: misuse, vitriol, vituperate, affront, burn, carry, cut down, disrespect

4. transitiveTo 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.First known use mid-20th c.
5. archaictransitiveTo violate; defile; to rape; (reflexive) to masturbate.First known use around 1350 to 1470

   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

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 16, page 276

   2 more examples

   This the Holy Scripture teaches, as expreſly as may be; Neither Fornicators, ſays St. Paul, nor Adulterers, nor the Abominable, ſhall inherit the Kingdom of God; cautioning alſo at the ſame time, that we don’t abuſe our ſelves, nor flatter our ſelves in this Reſpect.

   1722, Onania; or, The Heinous Sin of Self-Pollution, 6th edition, London, retrieved 28 Feb 2022, page 26

   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.

   2003, Thomas W. Laqueur, Solitary Sex: A Cultural History of Masturbation, New York: Zone Books, →ISBN, retrieved 28 Feb 2022, page 14

   Synonyms: outrage, ravish, self-abuse, touch oneself, constuprate, defile, defoul, dishonour

6. obsoletetransitiveMisrepresent; adulterate.First known use ca. 1350—1470 to mid-18th c.

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

   1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

7. obsoletetransitiveTo deceive; to trick; to impose on; misuse the confidence of.First known use late 15th–early 19th c.

   1 more example

   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 banquet loaden with variety of follies and filthiness, their legs failing them, their eyes red and staring, cozened with a moist cloud and abused by a double object

   Synonyms: con, hustle, beglammer, counterfeit, deceive, catch, trap into, dissemble

8. ScotlandobsoletetransitiveDisuse.First known use late 15th c.–mid 16th c.