abuse

CEFRC1

/əˈbjuːs/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    Cruel or harmful treatment of a person or thing.

  2. 02

    verb

    To treat a person or thing cruelly or wrongly.

Examples

  • She walked out on her boyfriend after three years of abuse.

  • We must work together to prevent any form of child abuse.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • /əˈbɪʊs/
  • /əˈbjuːz/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A delusion; an imposture; misrepresentation; deception.

  2. Misuse; improper use; perversion.

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

More examples

In context

  • Words of abuse poured from his lips.

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

  • children hurling abuse at each other

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The organization strictly forbids any form of verbal or physical blank against its members.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

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.