abuse
/əˈbjus/ noun B2- 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.
- Coarse, insulting speech; abusive language; language that unjustly or angrily vilifies. · children hurling abuse at each other
- Physical maltreatment; injury; cruel treatment.
- Violation; defilement; rape; forcing of undesired sexual activity by one person on another, often on a repeated basis.
Plural abuses
From the library
Bennet, how can you abuse your own children in such a way?
His resentment was in proportion to the distress of his circumstances--and he was doubtless as violent in his abuse of me to others as in his reproaches to myself.
You abuse my cookery because you dine at the table d’hôte of the Hôtel des Princes, or the Café de Paris.
Other matches
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