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Vulgar vs Abuse - What's the difference?

vulgar | abuse |

As an adjective vulgar

is debased, uncouth, distasteful, obscene.

As a noun abuse is

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

As a verb 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.

vulgar

English

Adjective

(en-adj)
  • Debased, uncouth, distasteful, obscene.
  • * {{quote-book
  • , year= 1551 , year_published= 1888 , author= , by= , title= A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles: Founded Mainly on the Materials Collected by the Philological Society. , url= http://books.google.com/books?id=JmpXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA217 , original= , chapter= , section= Part 1 , isbn= , edition= , publisher= Clarendon Press , location= Oxford , editor= , volume= 1 , page= 217 , passage= Also the rule of false position, with dyuers examples not onely vulgar , but some appertaynyng to the rule of Algeber. }}
  • * The construction worker made a vulgar suggestion to the girls walking down the street.
  • (classical sense) Having to do with ordinary, common people.
  • * Bishop Fell
  • It might be more useful to the English reader to write in our vulgar language.
  • * Bancroft
  • The mechanical process of multiplying books had brought the New Testament in the vulgar tongue within the reach of every class.
  • * 1860 , G. Syffarth, "A Remarkable Seal in Dr. Abbott's Museum at New York", Transactions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis? , age 265
  • Further, the same sacred name in other monuments precedes the vulgar name of King Takellothis , the sixth of the XXII. Dyn., as we have seen.

    Synonyms

    * (obscene) inappropriate, obscene, debased, uncouth, offensive, ignoble, mean, profane * (ordinary) common, ordinary, popular

    Derived terms

    * (obscene) vulgarity * (ordinary) vulgar fraction, vulgate, Vulgate * vulgar fraction

    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 ----