(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.
Disparage
Definition:
(v. t.) To match unequally; to degrade or dishonor by an unequal marriage.
(v. t.) To dishonor by a comparison with what is inferior; to lower in rank or estimation by actions or words; to speak slightingly of; to depreciate; to undervalue.
(n.) Inequality in marriage; marriage with an inferior.
Example Sentences:
(1) (“The Dynasty of Bush” sounds like a terribly disparaging term for Linda Evans, Kate O’Mara and Joan Collins .
(2) US diplomats disparaged New Zealand's reaction to a suspected Israeli spy ring as a "flap" and accused New Zealand's government of grandstanding in order to sell more lamb to Arab countries, according to leaked cables.
(3) For the man who created the " specialist in failure " aphorism to disparage a fellow manager, it is obvious how much that would hurt.
(4) I’m hoping that he will actually raise the level of discussion,” Sullivan said, “and that he won’t just disparage everything with a tweet.
(5) There had been suggestions that Cameron had been caught off camera earlier on Saturday making disparaging remarks about Terry to Obama.
(6) On the left is the favourite, Spanish-born Hidalgo, 54, protégée of current mayor Bertrand Delanoë and disparagingly referred to as la dauphine (the heiress).
(7) • The Wall Street Journal uncovers communications between Sony and Marvel discussing a Spider-Man crossover and speaking disparagingly about Spider-Man star Andrew Garfield.
(8) The Republican move appears to be intended in part to highlight Republican disparagement of Barack Obama as the "food stamp president" because record numbers of Americans now claim the benefit, doubling the cost of the programme since 2008 to $80bn a year.
(9) Roginsky said in the suit that she was punished for not disparaging the former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson after she filed a sexual harassment suit against Ailes.
(10) The main finding of this study consists of an interaction between the personality factor anxiety and the feedback variable: High-anxiety subjects prefer test-disparaging information significantly more in the negative feedback condition than in the positive feedback condition, whereas low-anxiety subjects show no difference in preference for test-related information as a function of the feedback condition.
(11) However, one of the channel's British reporters, Sara Firth, appeared to go off message with a series of disparaging tweets in which she said the channel's reporters were engaged in lies.
(12) Axelrod admitted that Democratic supporters would have been disappointed that Obama had not raised strong issues such as the Republican position on women's rights, or the secret video showing Romney disparaging 47% of voters as freeloaders or his record as chief executive of the investment fund Bain Capital.
(13) Rather than honoring their sacrifice and recognizing their pain, Mr Trump disparaged the religion of the family of an American hero,” Collins wrote.
(14) Unfortunately, such methods are often inappropriately disparaged or ignored by epidemiologists.
(15) In addition, the voices of schizophrenic patients are predominantly disparaging, call approbrious names, or are accusatory.
(16) Critics were quick to disparage Obama's achievement as a meaningless compromise.
(17) Facebook Twitter Pinterest Abbott disparaged the fund at the time, comparing it to a domestic fund championed by the former Greens leader Bob Brown , which he wants to abolish.
(18) And despite my disparaging remarks about quite what did Tony achieve from his premiership the fact is if I had to choose between the Blairites and the Brownites I would choose the Blairites."
(19) The Labour leader said he would never disparage David Cameron in the same way, even though he believes the prime minister's policies are "profoundly misguided".
(20) More than 20% of the children--equal proportions of girls and boys--had self-perceptions that seriously underestimated their actual high abilities, and displayed a corresponding pattern of disparaging self- and other-achievement attitudes.