abuse

Etymology 1

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.

noun

1. Improper treatment or usage; application to a wrong or bad purpose; an unjust, corrupt or wrongful practice or custom.
   All abuse, whether physical, verbal, psychological or sexual, is bad.
   Human rights abuses.
   Dickens was careful to castigate abuses which were being reformed. 1948, W. R. Inge, The End of an Age and Other Essays
2. Misuse; improper use; perversion.
   Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty, as well as by the abuses of power. 1788, James Madison, Federalist, Number 63
   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, page 164
3. (obsolete) A delusion; an imposture; misrepresentation; deception.
   Or is it some abuse, and no such thing? 1601, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, act IV, scene VII
4. Coarse, insulting speech; abusive language; language that unjustly or angrily vilifies.
   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. February 11 1950, 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
5. (now rare) Catachresis.
6. Physical maltreatment; injury; cruel treatment.
7. Violation; defilement; rape; forcing of undesired sexual activity by one person on another, often on a repeated basis.

Etymology 2

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”).

verb

1. (transitive) To put to a wrong use; to misapply; to use improperly; to misuse; to use for a wrong purpose or end; to pervert
   He abused his authority.
   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. (transitive) To injure; to maltreat; to hurt; to treat with cruelty, especially repeatedly.
   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
3. (transitive) To attack with coarse language; to insult; to revile; malign; to speak in an offensive manner to or about someone; to disparage.
   But ever and always curse him and abuse him. 1904, W. B. Yeats, The King's Threshold
   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, “'Our team are here to help, not hurt': Woolworths urge customers not to abuse staff”, in Nine News
4. (transitive) 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.
5. (transitive, archaic) To violate; defile; to rape; (reflexive) to masturbate.
   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 2022-02-28, 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, retrieved 2022-02-28, page 14
6. (transitive, obsolete) Misrepresent; adulterate.
   Believe me, sir, he hath been abused, grossly abused to you. 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
7. (transitive, obsolete) To deceive; to trick; to impose on; misuse the confidence of.
   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
8. (transitive, obsolete, Scotland) Disuse.