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单词 abuse
释义 abuse
I. \əˈbyüz\ transitive verb
(-ed/-ing/-s)
Etymology: Middle English abusen, from Middle French abuser, from abus, n., abuse, from Latin abusus, past participle of abuti to consume, abuse, misuse, from ab- ab- (I) + uti to use — more at use
1.
 a. : to attack or injure with words : reproach coarsely : disparage
  < abuse a person in the most violent terms >
 b. obsolete : to speak falsely of : misrepresent
  < abused her to her friends >
2. obsolete : to cause to believe the false : lead into error : deceive
 < the Moor's abused by some most villainous knave — Shakespeare >
3.
 a. : to put to a use other than the one intended : misapply
  < abusing the privilege by invoking it for ends not sanctioned by law — Bernard Meltzer >
  : use or apply improperly or to excess
  < farmers have learned not to abuse the soil >
 b. : to put to a bad use : pervert
  < abused his power by profiting at the expense of others >
  : take unfair or undue advantage of
  < he has abused my confidence in letting this secret become known >
4. : to use or treat so as to injure, hurt, or damage : maltreat
 < abuse a horse by overworking it >
 < abuse one's eyes by reading in dim light >
: treat without consideration or fairness
 < those left behind felt themselves abused >
5.
 a. : masturbate
 b. archaic : to violate sexually : rape
 c. : to commit indecent assault on — compare abuse II 5
II. \-üs\ noun
(-s)
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French abus
1. : a corrupt practice or custom : offense, fault
 < the buying of votes and other election abuses >
2. : improper or incorrect use : misuse
 < to call that state a democracy is an abuse of terms >
: application to a wrong or bad purpose
 < the arbitrary punishments were an abuse of his power >
3. obsolete : a deceitful act : deception, delusion
 < or is it some abuse, and no such thing — Shakespeare >
4. : language that condemns or vilifies usually unjustly, intemperately, and angrily
 < bolshevist had become … a vague term of abuse — Rose Macaulay >
 < the political harridans would … attack every possible leader with scandal and abuse — H.G.Wells >
5.
 a. : the act of violating sexually : rape
 b. under some statutes : rape or indecent assault not amounting to rape — compare carnal abuse, self-abuse
6. : physically harmful treatment : maltreatment, ill-usage
 < to be arrested for abuse of an animal >
 < abuse of one's health >
Synonyms:
 invective, obloquy, vituperation, scurrility, billingsgate: abuse, the most general word in this list of terms, may frequently indicate a speaker's angry intent to wound; it usually suggests lack of anything that is fair or temperate
  < now there is one word in the extended vocabulary of barrack-room abuse that cannot pass without comment … you must not call a man a bastard unless you are prepared to prove it on his front teeth — Rudyard Kipling >
  invective may apply to any denunciatory diatribe, but it often connotes a certain command of cogent language
  < John Bull stopped at nothing in the way of insult; but its blazing audacity of invective never degenerated into dull abuse — Agnes Repplier >
  < Cicero replied in that masterpiece of invective known as the Fifth Philippic — John Buchan >
  This suggestion is not necessarily present
  < not the rapier of sarcasm but the bludgeon of invective — W.S.Maugham >
  obloquy may suggest language designed to shame another, language casting shame upon another
  < those who … stood by me in the teeth of obloquy, taunt and open sneer, or insult even — Oscar Wilde >
  < to a symbol of obloquy, to an unanswerable epithet of derogation — Bliss Perry >
  vituperation suggests fluent, ready, and sustained abuse and castigation nastily delivered
  < hag, nuisance, shrew, termagant let loose, she assailed everybody who violated in the least her prejudices. Presidents were nagged beyond endurance, and senators, and congressmen: no one could escape the vials of her vituperation — F.L.Pattee >
  < avoid reflections on the chastity of your opponent's female relations … Once you have gone so far it is impossible to retrace your steps and resort to minor forms of vituperation — Robert Graves >
  scurrility, the most uncomplimentary of these words, implies meanness or viciousness in attack and coarseness or foulness in language
  < interrupted in his defense by ribaldry and scurrility from the judgment seat — T.B.Macaulay >
  billingsgate may indicate very ready, easy profanity and obscenity delivered with practiced ease
  < the billingsgate slang they certainly have acquired in perfection, and no white would think of competing with them in abuse or hard swearing — Sidney Baker >
  < an assortment of billingsgate that would have paralyzed a fishwife and brought blushes to a character in a Jim Tully novel or a Eugene O'Neill play — Herbert Asbury >
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更新时间:2024/9/21 22:02:40