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Attachment vs Abuse - What's the difference?

attachment | abuse |

As a noun attachment

is the act or process of (physically or figuratively) attaching.

As a verb abuse is

.

attachment

English

Noun

  • The act or process of (physically or figuratively) attaching.
  • * 2005 , Rebecca N. Baergen, Manual of Benirschke and Kaufmann's Pathology of the Human Placenta , page 71:
  • The “implantation window” is a short, specific phase during which attachment of the blastocyst occurs.
  • A strong bonding towards or with.
  • I have such an attachment towards my fiancé!
  • A dependence, especially a strong one.
  • * 2003 , Griffith Edwards, Alcohol: The World's Favorite Drug , page 63:
  • Through every other kind of drug experience, however, ran his attachment to alcohol.
  • A device attached to a piece of equipment or a tool.
  • * 1978 , Walter H. Wager, Time of reckoning , page 194:
  • Zimchenko's phone had a tape attachment ,
  • The means by which something is physically attached.
  • * 2012 , Sinikka Elliott, Not My Kid: What Parents Believe about the Sex Lives of Their Teenagers , page 46:
  • [The umbilical cord is] the attachment connecting the fetus with the placenta.
  • (computing) A file sent along with an email.
  • (legal) Taking a person's property to satisfy a court-ordered debt.
  • attachment of earnings
  • (meteorology) The act or process by which any (downward) leader connects to any available (upward) streamer in a lightning flash.
  • * 2009 , Jakke Mäkelä, Eero Karvinen, Niko Porjo, Antti Mäkelä and Tapio Tuomi, Attachment of Natural Lightning Flashes to Trees: Preliminary Statistical Characteristics'', published in the ''Journal of Lightning Research , volume 1
  • Derived terms

    * attachment disorder ----

    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 ----