(v. t.) To put to a wrong use; to misapply; to misuse; to put to a bad use; to use for a wrong purpose or end; to pervert; as, to abuse inherited gold; to make an excessive use of; as, to abuse one's authority.
(v. t.) To use ill; to maltreat; to act injuriously to; to punish or to tax excessively; to hurt; as, to abuse prisoners, to abuse one's powers, one's patience.
(v. t.) To revile; to reproach coarsely; to disparage.
(v. t.) To dishonor.
(v. t.) To violate; to ravish.
(v. t.) To deceive; to impose on.
(v. t.) Improper treatment or use; application to a wrong or bad purpose; misuse; as, an abuse of our natural powers; an abuse of civil rights, or of privileges or advantages; an abuse of language.
(v. t.) Physical ill treatment; injury.
(v. t.) A corrupt practice or custom; offense; crime; fault; as, the abuses in the civil service.
(v. t.) Violation; rape; as, abuse of a female child.
Example Sentences:
(1) Unfortunately, due to confidentiality clauses that have been imposed on us by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, we are unable to provide our full names and … titles … However, we believe the evidence that will be submitted will validate the statements that we are making in this submission.” The submission detailed specific allegations – including names and dates – of sexual abuse of child detainees, violence and bullying of children, suicide attempts by children and medical neglect.
(2) The authors empirically studied the self-medication hypothesis of drug abuse by examining drug effects and motivation for drug use in 494 hospitalized drug abusers.
(3) Alcohol abuse remains the predominant cause of chronic liver disease in the Western world.
(4) With respect to family environment, a history of sexual abuse was associated with perceptions that families of origin had less cohesion, more conflict, less emphasis on moral-religious matters, less emphasis on achievement, and less of an orientation towards intellectual, cultural, and recreational pursuits.
(5) An official inquiry into the Rotherham abuse scandal blamed failings by Rotherham council and South Yorkshire police.
(6) Former detectives had dug out damning evidence of abuse, as well as testimony from officers recommending prosecution, sources said.
(7) After these two experimental years, a governmental institute for prevention of child abuse and neglect was organized.
(8) Stringer, a Vietnam war veteran who was knighted in 1999, is already inside the corporation, if only for a few months, after he was appointed as one of its non-executive directors to toughen up the BBC's governance following a string of scandals, from the Jimmy Savile abuse to multimillion-pound executive payoffs.
(9) History contains numerous examples of government secrecy breeding abuse.
(10) This preliminary study compared the level of ego development, as measured by Loevinger's Washington University Sentence Completion Test (SCT), of 30 women with histories of childhood sexual victimization, and 30 women with no history of abuse.
(11) The District became a byword for crime and drug abuse, while its “mayor for life” lived high on the hog and lurched cheerfully from one scandal to the next.
(12) An official from Cafcass, the children and family court advisory service, tried to persuade the child in several interviews, but eventually the official told the court that further persuasion was inappropriate and essentially abusive.
(13) A series of hierarchical multiple regressions revealed the effects of Surgency, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Intellect on evoking upset in spouses through condescension (e.g., treating spouse as stupid or inferior), possessiveness (demanding too much time and attention), abuse (slapping spouse), unfaithfulness (having sex with others), inconsiderateness (leaving toilet seat up), moodiness (crying a lot), alcohol abuse (drinking too much alcohol), emotional constriction (hiding emotions to act tough), and self-centeredness (acting selfishly).
(14) Its abuse has become concentrated among post-high school age, black males in a limited number of cities, especially Washington, DC.
(15) From a clinical standpoint, it is clear that psychiatrists caring for anxious patients must be aware of the possibility of secondary alcohol abuse.
(16) A thorough nursing assessment is essential to detect and correct drug misuse and to diagnose drug abuse.
(17) Substantial percentages of both physicians and medical students reported access to drugs, family histories of substance abuse, stress at work and home, emotional problems, and sensation seeking.
(18) Subjects with past history of chronic substance abuse, neurologic disease, or focal findings on MRI or CT were excluded.
(19) And any Labour commitment on spending is fatally undermined by their deficit amnesia.” Davey widened the attack on the Tories, following a public row this week between Clegg and Theresa May over the “snooper’s charter”, by accusing his cabinet colleague Eric Pickles of coming close to abusing his powers by blocking new onshore developments against the wishes of some local councils.
(20) Again, the boys in care that he abused now speak to us as broken adults.
Disabuse
Definition:
(v. t.) To set free from mistakes; to undeceive; to disengage from fallacy or deception; to set right.
Example Sentences:
(1) Thomas Hitzlsperger's decision to reveal he "preferred living together with a man" may not disabuse them.
(2) Geim was disabused of the notion by the CEO of "a world-leading phone company", Novoselov recalls.
(3) Facebook Twitter Pinterest Paul Ryan on failed healthcare bill: ‘This is a disappointing day’ Ryan’s Trumpcare was a horrendous concoction and should disabuse fawning congressional reporters of the notion that the speaker is a man of deep intellect and self-reflection.
(4) Those who thought County would fold, however, were quickly disabused of the notion by Burke, who received the ball on the right touchline in the 56th minute, turned and curled a glorious left-footed shot beyond the desperately reaching Bunn .
(5) By my early 20s I had been cruelly disabused of the notion that the young live for ever.
(6) Photograph: Murdo MacLeod It is such desperate, insouciant optimism about the consequences of unbundling the UK which the Alistair Darling-led Better Together campaign struggles to disabuse.
(7) Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian The idea of open access is a remnant of the initial vision for privatisation under John Major’s government, which was swiftly disabused of the notion that the whole railway could run on such a basis.
(8) You will have to quickly disabuse the unions, and everyone else, of any idea that this means that you are owned by the unions.
(9) Professor John Curtice, a psephologist at Strathclyde University, said the results showed the share of the vote going to Farage's party had dropped since last year, but "anybody who thought that the Ukip bubble was going to be easily deflated should now be disabused of that notion".
(10) Until you slowly disabused them of the notion over the next 17 years … Yeah, I decided to keep clean sheets for them and let Stevie Gerrard and others take the plaudits at the other end.
(11) The surest way to disabuse yourself of this pernicious falsehood is to read the Bible itself," he says.
(12) Even the victims courageous enough to think they could tell the authorities, the police or the media, were quickly disabused of their illusion, because in a sense those institutions were Savile's victims, too.
(13) Writing on the ConservativeHome website , the Tory peer said: "If anyone expected an immediate leap in the Conservative party's popularity, the evidence should by now have disabused them of the notion.
(14) "Certainly what these local elections demonstrate is that anybody who thought that the Ukip bubble was going to be easily deflated should now be disabused of that notion," he said.
(15) A quick trip across the island disabuses any real worry that strip malls and box stores are imminent, but a certain measure of change is definitely on the way.
(16) Now, this kind of serendipitous synchronicity among designers does nothing to disabuse me of my belief that what we call "trends" are actually "evil plots cooked up by designers who scheme together ahead of time to make similar colours and clothes to convince the public that in order to look up to date we need to buy their wares."
(17) Foreman, roughly disabused of his conviction that all his rivals were entombed in physical inferiority, is by no means the only one left stunned by the blow and that gives Ali a particular satisfaction.
(18) In his remarks in Berlin, Hammond sought to disabuse any notion that the UK may pull back from Brexit.
(19) Well, I say, when you write novels about narrators who live in your apartment, or share your own name, you don't exactly try to disabuse them of their confusion, do you?
(20) Mental health charities say "depression is real and debilitating"; people who make it their business to speak "common sense", to disabuse the lefties of their leftiness, say "you don't look very depressed to me".