Abusive vs Abused - What's the difference?
abusive | abused |
Wrongly used; perverted; misapplied; unjust; illegal.
* I am ... necessitated to use the word Parliament improperly, according to the abusive acceptation thereof. - Fuller
(archaic) Catachrestic.
(archaic) Full of abuses; practicing abuse; containing abuse, or serving as the instrument of abuse.
*
Prone to ill treat by coarse, insulting words or by other ill usage; vituperative; reproachful; scurrilous.
* An abusive lampoon. - A dictionary of the English language
(obsolete) Tending to deceive; fraudulent.
* An abusive treaty. -
(archaic) Given to misusing; also, full of abuses.
* The abusive prerogatives of his see. -
(obsolete) Given to misusing.
Being physically injurious; characterized by repeated violence.
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(abuse)
Improper treatment or usage; application to a wrong or bad purpose; an unjust, corrupt or wrongful practice or custom.
*
Misuse; improper use; perversion.
* 1788 , , Number 63
* {{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April
, author=(Jan Sapp)
, title=Race Finished
, volume=100, issue=2, page=164
, magazine=(American Scientist)
(obsolete) A delusion; an imposture; misrepresentation; deception.
*
Coarse, insulting speech; abusive language; language that unjustly or angrily vilifies.
*
(now, rare) Â Catachresis.
Physical maltreatment; injury; cruel treatment.
Violation; defilement; rape; forcing of undesired sexual activity by one person on another, often on a repeated basis.
To put to a wrong use; to misapply; to use improperly; to misuse; to use for a wrong purpose or end; to pervert; as, to abuse one's authority.
*
To injure; to maltreat; to hurt; to treat with cruelty, especially repeatedly.
*
To attack with coarse language; to insult; to revile; malign; to speak in an offensive manner to or about someone; to disparage.
* Macaulay
*
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.
(archaic) To violate; defile; to rape.
(obsolete) Misrepresent; adulterate.
*
(obsolete) To deceive; to trick; to impose on; misuse the confidence of.
* 1651-2 , , "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
(transitive, obsolete, Scotland) Disuse.
As an adjective abusive
is wrongly used; perverted; misapplied; unjust; illegal .As a verb abused is
(abuse).abusive
English
Adjective
(en adjective)Synonyms
* reproachful, scurrilous, opprobrious, insolent, insulting, injurious, offensive, reviling, berating, vituperativeDerived terms
* abusively * abusivenessReferences
abused
English
Verb
(head)Anagrams
*abuse
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) abusen, then from either (etyl)Noun
(en noun)- All abuse , whether physical, verbal, psychological or sexual, is bad.
- Liberty may be endangered by the abuses' of liberty, as well as by the ' abuses of power.
citation, passage=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?}}
Usage notes
* Typically followed by the word of .Synonyms
* invective, contumely, reproach, scurrility, insult, opprobriumDerived terms
* abusefully * abuse of distress * alcohol abuse * child abuse * drug abuse * self-abuseVerb
(abus)- The tellers of news abused the general.
- (Spenser)
- 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