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Adversity vs Abuse - What's the difference?

adversity | abuse |

As a noun adversity

is (uncountable) the state of adverse conditions; state of misfortune or calamity.

As a verb abuse is

.

adversity

English

Noun

(en-noun)
  • (uncountable) The state of adverse conditions; state of misfortune or calamity.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1858
  • , year_published=2008 , publisher=Read Books , author= , title= , section=Chapter III citation , isbn=9781443734035 , page=55 , passage=The doctor loved the squire, loved him as his oldest friend; but he loved him ten times better as being in adversity than he could ever have done had things gone well at Greshansbury in his time.}}
  • * {{quote-book, year=2007
  • , publisher=PublishAmerica , author=Earl Crouch , title=Do You Know? , chapter=When Adversity Strikes citation , isbn=9781424173914 , page=60 , passage=God approves all adversity'. Not all '''adversity''' that the Christian encounters is due to sins in the Christian's life. Not all ' adversity is the fault of the Christian.}}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1998
  • , publisher=Naval Institute Press , editor=Karel Montor , author=Karel Montor, et al , title=Naval Leadership: Voices of Experience , edition=2nd edition , chapter=Directing and Coordinating Operations , section=Efficient and Professional Conduct citation , isbn=9781557505965 , page=278 , passage=These are the people who will overcome the adversity , chaos, and destruction of combat and defeat the enemy in war.}}
  • (countable) An event that is adverse; calamity.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=1859
  • , author= , coauthors= , title=The Great Earl of Cork , date=September 1859 , volume=LIV , issue= , page=326 , magazine=The Dublin University Magazine: A Literary and Political Journal , publisher=Alex Thom & Sons citation , passage=Having “secret notice,” the writer of “True Remembrances” declares of the above complains, he retired into Munster, intending to proceed to England, to justify himself; but was detained there for want of money by the breaking out of rebellion. This adversity befell him in the autumn of 1598. }}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1977
  • , year_published=1979 , publisher=Routledge , author=Genevieve Burton , title=Interpersonal Relations: A Guide for Nurses , edition=Fourth edition , chapter=Family Adversity and the Nurse citation , isbn=9780422769907 , page=101 , passage=Every family is struck by adversity' at one time or another. No matter how mature the patients are, regardless of the care an advantages they give their children, despite a desirable interactive love between family members, ' adversity will attack any family}}
  • * {{quote-book, year=2006
  • , year_published=2007 , publisher=Plume , author=Elizabeth Wissner-Gross , title=What Colleges Don't Tell You (and Other Parents Don't Want You to Know: 272 Secrets for Getting Your Kid Into the Top Schools , chapter=Getting Your Kid off the Waiting List and into the School of His or Her Dreams citation , isbn=9780452288546 , page=272 , passage=Make sure that your child’s adversity' is ''really'' an '''adversity'''. Not having parents who can buy a new car upon your son’s sixteenth birthday is not an '''adversity'''. Being the only girl on the block who doesn’t own a designed handbag is not an ' adversity }}

    Synonyms

    *nakba

    abuse

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) abusen, then from either (etyl)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • 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.
  • Misuse; improper use; perversion.
  • * 1788 , , Number 63
  • Liberty may be endangered by the abuses' of liberty, as well as by the ' abuses of power.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April
  • , author=(Jan Sapp) , title=Race Finished , volume=100, issue=2, page=164 , magazine=(American Scientist) 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?}}
  • (obsolete) A delusion; an imposture; misrepresentation; deception.
  • *
  • Coarse, insulting speech; abusive language; language that unjustly or angrily vilifies.
  • *
  • (now, rare)   Catachresis.
  • Physical maltreatment; injury; cruel treatment.
  • Violation; defilement; rape; forcing of undesired sexual activity by one person on another, often on a repeated basis.
  • Usage notes
    * Typically followed by the word of .
    Synonyms
    * invective, contumely, reproach, scurrility, insult, opprobrium
    Derived terms
    * abusefully * abuse of distress * alcohol abuse * child abuse * drug abuse * self-abuse

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) abusen, from (etyl) abuser, from (etyl) .

    Verb

    (abus)
  • 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
  • The tellers of news abused the general.
  • *
  • 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.
  • (Spenser)
  • (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
  • 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
  • (transitive, obsolete, Scotland) Disuse.
  • Synonyms
    * maltreat, injure, revile, reproach, vilify, vituperate, asperse, traduce, malign * See also
    Derived terms
    * abusable * abusage * abuser

    References

    *

    Anagrams

    * English heteronyms ----