Another word for abuse
a-z
Noun
Misuse
- The practice of engaging in sex acts in exchange for money.
- The act or practice of prostituting, or the fact of being prostituted; esp., the trade of a prostitute
- The practice of offering oneself or using one's talents for an unworthy purpose, especially for personal gain.
- The act or an instance of profaning; desecration.
- A profaning or being profaned; desecration; defilement
- An advertising or publicity program.
- Utilization of another person or group for selfish purposes:
- The act of employing to the greatest possible advantage:
- Something that pollutes; a pollutant or a group of pollutants:
- The act or process of polluting or the state of being polluted, especially the contamination of soil, water, or the atmosphere by the discharge of harmful substances.
- The wrongful, fraudulent or corrupt use of other's funds in one's care.
- A desecrating or being desecrated
- An act of disrespect or impiety towards something considered sacred.
- Wrong or mistaken employment.
- (Chemistry) Decomposition of a compound, especially complex substances such as polymers and proteins, by stages, exhibiting well-defined intermediate products.
- (Geol.) The lowering of land surfaces by erosion
- (Geology) A general lowering of the earth's surface by erosion or weathering.
- Something perverted; abnormal form
- A sexual practice or act considered abnormal or deviant.
- Any of various sexual acts or practices deviating from what is considered normal; sexual deviation
- The misuse of something, incorrectly using (applying) something, a wrong application.
- (Obs.) Bad or harsh treatment
- Improper, unlawful, or incorrect use; misapplication.
Antonyms:Insulting language
- The act or an instance of vituperating.
- Sustained, harshly critical language; invective.
- The act of reviling.
- Denunciatory or abusive language; vituperation:
- A denunciatory or abusive expression or discourse:
- A violent verbal attack; strong criticism, insults, curses, etc.; vituperation
Ill-treatment
- A persecuting or being persecuted
- The act or practice of persecuting on the basis of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or beliefs that differ from those of the persecutor.
- The condition of being persecuted.
- Desecration of something sacred, as a church
- Interruption; disturbance
- Infringement or breach, as of a law, rule, right, etc.
- Violation of another's rights or of what is right; lack of justice.
- An unjust act; injury
- A specific unjust act; a wrong.
- That which is unjust, immoral, or improper:
- An unjust, injurious, or immoral act:
- The condition of being in error or at fault:
- (Accounting) A downward revaluation, a write-down.
- The result of being impaired; a deterioration or weakening; a disability or handicap; an inefficient part or factor.
- Great anger, indignation, etc. aroused by such an act or offense
- An act of extreme violence or viciousness:
- Something that is grossly offensive to decency, morality, or good taste:
- (--- Law) The unlawful and unwanted touching or striking of one person by another, with the intention of bringing about a harmful or offensive contact.
- A group of similar things arranged, connected, or used together; set or series; array
- (Baseball) A pitcher and catcher considered as a unit.
- Something that hurts; a pain, injury, or wound.
- A wrong; harm:
- Harm, wrong, or damage
- Immoral or unjust effects:
- Moral wrong; evil
- Hurt; injury; damage
- (Law) Money required to be paid as compensation for an injury or wrong.
- (Law) Money claimed by, or ordered paid to, a person to compensate for injury or loss caused by the wrong of the opposite party or parties
- (Informal) Cost; price:
- A particular form of hurt, damage, or loss:
- Physical harm or damage to a person, property, etc.
- Damage or harm done to or suffered by a person or thing:
Verb
To treat badly
- To use up completely:
- To let out or draw off (a gas, for example) from a container.
- To let out the contents of (a container); cause or allow to escape:
- To use up, especially recklessly; exhaust:
- To spend much time and energy on indulgence in pleasure, esp. drinking, gambling, etc., to the point of harming oneself
- To drive away; cause to vanish:
- To destroy; devastate; ruin
- To lose energy, strength, weight, or vigor; become weak or enfeebled:
- To use up or spend without real need, gain, or purpose; squander
- To ruin morally; pervert:
- To cause to become rotten; spoil:
- (--- Computers) To damage (data) in a file or on a disk.
- To become tainted
- To subject to decay or putrefaction:
- To affect or associate with something undesirable or reprehensible:
- (Obs.) To defame or slander
- To debase, especially morally; corrupt.
- To lead into bad habits; make morally bad; corrupt; pervert
- To profane or sully
- To profane or sully (a reputation, for example).
- To have sexual intercourse with (a woman who is a virgin).
- To commit a sexual assault on; often, specif., to rape (a woman)
- To desecrate or profane (something sacred)
- To do harm to (property or qualities considered sacred); desecrate or defile.
- To burden oppressively; weigh down
- To subject to an excessive burden or strain; overtax.
- To burden with too much weight; overload.
- To drive (a vehicle) too far or too long.
- To drive too hard, or far, or beyond strength.
- To overburden
- To subject to an excessive burden or strain.
- To tax in excess of what is considered appropriate or just.
- To make (someone) work too hard.
- To work too hard or too long
- To work or use to excess
- To make unethical use of for one's own advantage or profit; specif., to make profit from the labor of (others) without giving a just return
- To employ to the greatest possible advantage:
- To use for one’s own advantage.
- To handle (someone) roughly
- To move or handle by manpower alone.
- To move or do by human strength only, without mechanical aids
- To subject (another) to hostile or prejudicial remarks or actions; pressure or intimidate.
- To trouble, worry, or torment, as with cares, debts, repeated questions or demands, etc.
- To trouble by repeated raids or attacks, etc.; harry
- To contaminate (water, air, etc.) with harmful chemicals, waste material, etc.
- To render impure or morally harmful; corrupt:
- To make less suitable for an activity, especially by the introduction of unwanted factors:
- To remove the consecration from someone or something; to deconsecrate.
- To inappropriately change.
- To take away the sacredness of; treat as not sacred; profane
- To sell (oneself, one's artistic or moral integrity, etc.) for low or unworthy purposes
- To offer (oneself or another) for sexual activity in exchange for money.
- To devote (oneself or one's talent, for example) to an unworthy purpose, especially for personal gain.
- To treat with irreverence:
- To treat (sacred things) with irreverence or contempt; desecrate
- To put to an improper, unworthy, or degrading use; abuse.
- To turn to an improper use; misuse
- To bring into a worse condition; debase
- To cause to turn from what is considered right, good, or true; misdirect; lead astray; corrupt
- To handle incorrectly, to make a mistake in handling a thing or situation.
- To handle badly or roughly; abuse, maltreat, or mismanage
- To handle badly, causing physical injury.
- To offend grossly against (standards of decency or morality); commit an outrage on.
- To produce anger or resentment in:
- To offend, insult, or wrong grievously
- To disseminate widely; popularize.
- To make vulgar, coarse, unrefined, obscene, etc.
- To cause to be more widely known, more easily understood, etc.; popularize
- To be damaged or injured in such a way as to become useless, valueless, etc.; specif., to decay, as food
- To become unfit for use or consumption, as from decay. Used especially of perishables, such as food.
- To overindulge so as to cause to demand or expect too much
- To impair the soundness, perfection, or integrity of; spoil.
- To injure or damage so as to make imperfect, less attractive, etc.; spoil; impair; disfigure
- To inflict damage, especially disfiguring damage, on.
- To bring or reduce to ruin
- (Archaic) To go or come to ruin
- To destroy, spoil, or damage irreparably
- To keep down by severe and unjust use of force or authority:
- To keep down by the cruel or unjust use of power or authority; rule harshly; tyrannize over
- To cause to feel worried or depressed:
- To annoy by continual scolding, faultfinding, complaining, urging, etc.
- To keep troubling, worrying, etc.
- To cause continual discomfort, pain, etc.
- To annoy, pester, or harass:
- To annoy, harass, or tease
- To cause to undergo great physical pain or mental anguish.
- To annoy persistently; bother:
- To afflict or harass constantly so as to injure or distress; oppress cruelly, esp. for reasons of religion, politics, or race
- To trouble or annoy constantly
- To treat (someone) unjustly or injuriously.
- In a wrong course or direction:
- In a wrong manner; mistakenly or erroneously:
- To treat roughly or unkindly; abuse
- To treat in a rough or cruel way; abuse.
- To disturb, interfere with, or annoy:
- To assault or otherwise abuse (esp. a child) sexually
- To annoy, interfere with, or meddle with so as to trouble or harm, or with intent to trouble or harm
- To subject (a smaller or weaker person) to frequent beatings
- To break to bits by pounding
- To injure or damage by pounding, by hard wear or use, etc.
- To treat unkindly, cruelly, or unfairly; harm; abuse; maltreat
- To distress; afflict.
- To inflict an injury or injuries on.
- To cause grief or injury to; offend
- To make worse, less, weaker, etc.; reduce an ability or function
- To cause to weaken, be damaged, or diminish, as in quality:
- To suffer or be susceptible to damage.
- To do harm to:
- To do harm to; hurt, damage, etc.
- To cause physical damage or pain to (an individual or a body part); injure:
- To cause distress or damage:
- To cause physical damage to (something); harm:
- To cause damage to; impair:
- To do physical harm or damage to; hurt
- To be unjust to; wrong
- To treat with gross insensitivity, insolence, or contemptuous rudeness.
- To affront or demean:
- To treat or speak to with scorn, insolence, or great disrespect; subject to treatment, a remark, etc. that hurts or is meant to hurt the feelings or pride
- To mistreat or abuse.
- To treat badly or harshly; abuse
- To use incorrectly or improperly; misapply
To hurt with words
- To scold or rebuke severely
- To rebuke or scold angrily and at length.
- To use abusive or slanderous language about or of; calumniate; revile; defame
- To attack the reputation of (a person or thing) with strong or abusive criticism.
- To make evil, harmful, and often untrue statements about (someone).
- To speak evil of; defame; slander; traduce
- To assail with scornful or abusive language; vituperate.
- To use abusive or contemptuous language in speaking to or about; call bad names
© WEBSTER’S NEW WORLD® ROGET’S A-Z THESAURUS by Charlton Laird and the editors of Webster’s New World dictionaries. Copyright © 1999 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Another word for abuse
Verb
To use wrongly and improperly
- To change or misapply the meaning of; misinterpret; distort; twist
- To cause to turn from what is considered right, good, or true; misdirect; lead astray; corrupt
- To turn to an improper use; misuse
- To use incorrectly or improperly; misapply
- To treat badly or harshly; abuse
- To mistreat or abuse.
- To embezzle
- To appropriate wrongly:
- To appropriate dishonestly for one's own use; embezzle.
See also:To take advantage of unfairly
- To put or bring into action or service; employ for or apply to a given purpose
- To take or consume for a purpose:
- To avail oneself of; practice:
- To take for granted that something is true or factual; make a supposition.
- To venture without authority or permission; dare:
- To take upon oneself without permission or authority; dare (to say or do something); venture
- To offer or circulate fraudulently; pass off:
- To force oneself on or take unfair advantage of others:
- To arrange (pages of type or plates) in a frame in the proper order of printing
- To employ to the greatest possible advantage:
- To make use of; turn to account; utilize productively
- To use for one’s own advantage.
See also:To hurt or injure by maltreatment
- To use incorrectly or improperly; misapply
- To treat badly or harshly; abuse
- To mistreat or abuse.
- To treat in a rough or cruel way; abuse.
- To treat roughly or unkindly; abuse
- To treat unkindly, cruelly, or unfairly; harm; abuse; maltreat
See also:To attack with harsh, often insulting language
- To rebuke or criticize harshly or angrily; berate.
- To use harshly critical or irate language; rail.
- To speak abusively to or about; berate; revile
- To assail with scornful or abusive language; vituperate.
- To use abusive or contemptuous language in speaking to or about; call bad names
- To begin working on (a task, problem, etc.) with vigor and determination
- To attack violently, as with blows or military force; assault.
- To attack physically and violently; assault
See also:
Noun
Wrong, often corrupt use
- Something perverted; abnormal form
- Any of various sexual acts or practices deviating from what is considered normal; sexual deviation
- A sexual practice or act considered abnormal or deviant.
- (Obs.) Bad or harsh treatment
- Improper, unlawful, or incorrect use; misapplication.
- The wrongful, fraudulent or corrupt use of other's funds in one's care.
- The misuse of something, incorrectly using (applying) something, a wrong application.
See also:Physically harmful treatment
- Improper application, as of words.
- Bad or harsh treatment
- Abusive treatment.
See also:Harsh, often insulting language
- The act or an instance of vituperating.
- Sustained, harshly critical language; invective.
- The property of being scurrilous.
- A scurrilous act or remark
- The quality of being vulgar, coarse, or abusive.
- A vulgar, coarse, or abusive remark or passage.
- The act of reviling.
- Rails considered as a group.
- Rails collectively
- A structure made of a rail, often connecting a series of upright members, that is used as a guard or barrier or for support, as on a balcony or next to a staircase.
- Verbal abuse of a person or thing; censure or vituperation, esp. when widespread or general
- The condition of disgrace suffered as a result of abuse or vilification; ill repute.
- Ill repute, disgrace, or infamy resulting from this
- Denunciatory or abusive language; vituperation:
- A denunciatory or abusive expression or discourse:
- A violent verbal attack; strong criticism, insults, curses, etc.; vituperation
- An insolent or arrogant remark or act.
- Haughty and contemptuous rudeness; insulting and humiliating treatment or language
- Rudeness or contempt arising from arrogance; insolence.
- Foul, abusive language.
- Foul, vulgar, abusive talk
See also:
© Roget’s II: The New Thesaurus Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
