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What is the difference between corrupt and abuse?

corrupt | abuse |

As verbs the difference between corrupt and abuse

is that corrupt is to make ; to change from good to bad; to draw away from the right path; to deprave; to pervert while abuse is 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.

As a adjective corrupt

is in a depraved state; debased; perverted; morally degenerate; weak in morals.

As a noun abuse is

improper treatment or usage; application to a wrong or bad purpose; an unjust, corrupt or wrongful practice or custom.

corrupt

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • In a depraved state; debased; perverted; morally degenerate; weak in morals.
  • The government here is corrupt , so we'll emigrate to escape them.
  • * Shakespeare
  • At what ease / Might corrupt' minds procure knaves as ' corrupt / To swear against you.
  • Abounding in errors; not genuine or correct; in an invalid state.
  • The text of the manuscript is corrupt .
    It turned out that the program was corrupt - that's why it wouldn't open.
  • In a putrid state; spoiled; tainted; vitiated; unsound.
  • * Knolles
  • Who with such corrupt and pestilent bread would feed them.

    Usage notes

    * Nouns to which "corrupt" is often applied: practice, state, country, nation, regime, city, government, person, man, politician, leader, mayor, judge, member, minister, file, database, document, woman.

    Quotations

    * , Genesis 6:11 *: The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.

    Synonyms

    * corrupted

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make ; to change from good to bad; to draw away from the right path; to deprave; to pervert.
  • Don't you dare corrupt my son with those disgusting pictures!
  • * , Genesis 6:12
  • And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
  • To become putrid or tainted; to putrefy; to rot.
  • (Francis Bacon)
  • To debase or render impure by alterations or innovations; to falsify.
  • to corrupt language, or a holy text
  • To waste, spoil, or consume; to make worthless.
  • * Bible, Matthew vi. 19
  • Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt .

    References

    * *

    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 ----