This principle (if one may so abuse the word) shoots
rapidly into popularity. --Froude.
2. To use ill; to maltreat; to act injuriously to; to punish
or to tax excessively; to hurt; as, to abuse prisoners, to
abuse one's powers, one's patience.
3. To revile; to reproach coarsely; to disparage.
The . . . tellers of news abused the general.
--Macaulay.
4. To dishonor. ``Shall flight abuse your name?'' --Shak.
5. To violate; to ravish. --Spenser.
6. To deceive; to impose on. [Obs.]
Their eyes red and staring, cozened with a moist
cloud, and abused by a double object. --Jer. Taylor.
Syn: To maltreat; injure; revile; reproach; vilify;
vituperate; asperse; traduce; malign.
Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty,
as well as by the abuses of power. --Madison.
2. Physical ill treatment; injury. ``Rejoice . . . at the
abuse of Falstaff.'' --Shak.
3. A corrupt practice or custom; offense; crime; fault; as,
the abuses in the civil service.
Abuse after disappeared without a struggle..
--Macaulay.
4. Vituperative words; coarse, insulting speech; abusive
language; virulent condemnation; reviling.
The two parties, after exchanging a good deal of
abuse, came to blows. --Macaulay.
5. Violation; rape; as, abuse of a female child. [Obs.]
Or is it some abuse, and no such thing? --Shak.
{Abuse of distress} (Law), a wrongful using of an animal or
chattel distrained, by the distrainer.
Syn: Invective; contumely; reproach; scurrility; insult;
opprobrium.
Usage: {Abuse}, {Invective}. Abuse is generally prompted by
anger, and vented in harsh and unseemly words. It is
more personal and coarse than invective. Abuse
generally takes place in private quarrels; invective
in writing or public discussions. Invective may be
conveyed in refined language and dictated by
indignation against what is blameworthy. --C. J.
Smith.