Vulgar vs Abuse - What's the difference?
vulgar | abuse |
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
* Bancroft
* 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
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 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)- It might be more useful to the English reader to write in our vulgar language.
- The mechanical process of multiplying books had brought the New Testament in the vulgar tongue within the reach of every class.
- 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, popularDerived terms
* (obscene) vulgarity * (ordinary) vulgar fraction, vulgate, Vulgate * vulgar fractionabuse
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