Wrong vs Abuse - What's the difference?
wrong | abuse |
Incorrect or untrue.
* 1592 , (William Shakespeare), Richard III , Act II, Scene I:
Asserting something incorrect or untrue.
Immoral, not good, bad.
Improper; unfit; unsuitable.
Not working; out of order.
Designed to be worn or placed inward; as, the wrong side of a garment or of a piece of cloth.
(obsolete) Twisted; wry.
(informal) In a way that isn't right; done incorrectly; wrongly.
Something that is immoral or not good.
An instance of wronging someone (sometimes with possessive to indicate the wrongdoer).
* (rfdate) John Dowland:
The incorrect or unjust position or opinion.
* 1592', , ''Henry VI'', Part III, Act IV, Scene I, line 101. — I blame not her: she could say little less; She had the ' wrong .
The opposite of right; the concept of badness.
* 1607', , ''Timon of Athens'', Act IV, Scene III, line 28. — Thus much of this will make Black white, foul fair, ' wrong right, Base noble, old young, coward valiant.
To treat unjustly; to injure or harm.
* The dealer wronged us by selling us this lemon of a car.
* 1591', , ''Henry VI'', Part I, Act II, Scene IV, line 109. — Thou dost then ' wrong me, as that slaughterer doth Which giveth many wounds when one will kill.
To deprive of some right, or to withhold some act of justice.
* 1597', , ''Henry IV'', Part II, Act IV, Scene I, line 121. — ... And might by no suit gain our audience. When we are ' wrong'd and would unfold our griefs, We are denied access unto his person Even by those men that most have done us wrong.
To slander; to impute evil to unjustly.
* 1598', , ''Julius Caesar'', Act III, Scene II, line 121. — O masters! if I were dispos'd to stir Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage, I should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong, Who (you all know) are honorable men. I will not do them wrong; I rather choose To '''wrong''' the dead, to '''wrong''' myself and you, Than I will ' wrong such honorable men.
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) 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 verbs the difference between wrong and abuse
is that wrong is to treat unjustly; to injure or harm while abuse is .As an adjective wrong
is incorrect or untrue.As an adverb wrong
is (informal) in a way that isn't right; done incorrectly; wrongly.As a noun wrong
is something that is immoral or not good.wrong
English
Adjective
- Some of your answers were correct, and some were wrong .
- Among this princely heap, if any here / By false intelligence or wrong surmise / Hold me a foe
- You're wrong : he's not Superman at all.
- It is wrong to lie.
- A bikini is the wrong thing to wear on a cold day.
- Something is wrong with my cellphone .
- Don't cry, honey. Tell me what's wrong .
- a wrong nose
Usage notes
* The single-word comparative and superlative forms wronger and wrongest are no longer in common use, except humorously; rather, the locutions “more wrong” and “most wrong” are preferred. * When wrong is used attributively, before a noun, the noun is usually treated as definite, using the article the; hence, for example, one says, “I dialed the wrong number”, “he gave the wrong answer”, and “she took the wrong approach”, even though there are many possible wrong numbers, answers, and approaches, of which only one was dialed, given, or taken.Synonyms
* injurious * unjust * faulty * detrimental * unfit * unsuitable *Derived terms
* wrength * wrongly * wrongfulAntonyms
* rightQuotations
* 2007 January 3, Ken Miller, “The Collapse of Intelligent Design: Will the next Monkey Trial be in Ohio?”, Case Western University, Strosacker Auditorium *: that statement is wrong. Now that's not an incidental statement, that is the heart and soul of the Intelligent Design argument, and in this case it turns out to be wrong. Now it's even wronger than that [laughter ] because it turns out that not only do these proteins make up the Type-III Secretory Apparatus but almost every protein in the bacerial flagellum is strongly homologous to proteins that have other functions elsewhere in the cell.Adverb
(en adverb)- I spelled several names wrong in my address book.
Noun
(wikipedia wrong) (en noun)- Injustice is a heinous wrong .
- Can she excuse my wrongs with Virtue's cloak? Shall I call her good when she proves unkind?
Synonyms
* wrengthVerb
(en verb)Derived terms
* awrong * bark up the wrong tree * civil wrong * go down the wrong way * go wrong * in the wrong * * not that there's anything wrong with that * put a foot wrong * rub somebody the wrong way * self-wrong * start off on the wrong foot * two wrongs don't make a right * two wrongs make a right * wrong side of bed * wrong 'un * wrongdoing * wronger * wrong-foot * wrongful * wrongfully * wronghead * wrong-headed * wrongless * wrongly * wrongness * wrong number * wrongous * wrong side of the tracks * wrong side out * wrong-timed * wrong way * wrong-way concurrencySee also
* wrong'd * wrungStatistics
*Anagrams
* 1000 English basic words ----abuse
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