self-abuse

plural self-abuses

1. countableobsoleteuncountableSelf-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, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv], page 142, column 2

2. countableuncountablePhysical 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. countableuncountableInjury inflicted deliberately upon oneself, especially resulting from a mental disorder.

      Well I lost control and hurt myself I knew deep down that I needed some help This self-abuse, it would not stop, No matter how hard I tried

      2005, Mark Civitarese, Scott Hadayia, Edward Underwood, “Scream Out”, in State of Discontent (CD), performed by The Unseen, →OCLC, ISWC T0722550857

      1 more example

      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 at all rare.

      1970, David W. Meyers, The Human Body and Law: A Medico-legal Study, Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 48

      Synonyms: self-harm

3. countabledatedeuphemisticuncountablenow frequently ironic or humorousMasturbation, regarded as sinful or harmful.

   The vice consists in any excitement of the genital organs produced otherwise than in the natural way. It is known by the terms, self-pollution, self-abuse, masturbation, onanism, manustupration, voluntary pollution, solitary or secret vice, and other names sufficiently explanatory.

   [1881, John Harvey Kellogg, Plain Facts for Old and Young

   2 more examples

   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 or leſs ſtretched, weakned and debilitated

   1718, A Rational Account of the Cause, Nature, and Cure of Gleets, London, retrieved 28 Feb 2022, page 32

   Self-abuse is undoubtedly an evil in itself, because it is incomplete and unnatural, and sad is his state who has bound himself with the chains this vice can so deftly forge; but its chief danger is that it so quickly and easily becomes a habit, and then it is indulged beyond the power of the body to recuperate.

   1887, Henry G. Hanchett, Sexual Health: A Companion to “Modern Domestic Medicine”, New York: Charles T. Hurlburt, retrieved 28 Feb 2022, page 17

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

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

1. To harm oneself.
2. datedeuphemisticnow frequently ironic or humorousTo masturbate.