(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.
Pillory
Definition:
(n.) A frame of adjustable boards erected on a post, and having holes through which the head and hands of an offender were thrust so as to be exposed in front of it.
(v. t.) To set in, or punish with, the pillory.
(v. t.) Figuratively, to expose to public scorn.
Example Sentences:
(1) For his lone, perilous journey that defied the US occupation authorities, Burchett was pilloried, not least by his embedded colleagues.
(2) Tom Zarges, the head of Nuclear Management Partners (NMP), said he was a "long way from satisfied" by the track record of the business after it was pilloried by members of the Commons public accounts committee.
(3) The politician's arguments around reducing the demand for sex have been pilloried by campaigners.
(4) The idea that they should be pilloried on the basis of a badly-worded press release just shows that some people readily get things completely out of proportion.” Stopped on the street by border force?
(5) Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, was at pains to privately apologise to several world leaders who were pilloried in the disclosures.
(6) Tony Hayward , the former BP boss pilloried by US politicians over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill last year, launched his comeback with a £1bn stock market float that will catapult him back into the oil business.
(7) BP in particular was pilloried for promising to go “beyond petroleum” – then running down its alternative energy division.
(8) Last year, as the bank spiralled towards collapse and its chairman was pilloried, some Conservatives tried to suggest it was a crisis for Labour too.
(9) Griffin was repeatedly pilloried last night when he was dubbed the "Dr Strangelove" of British politics after attempting to claim the mantle of Winston Churchill and struggling to explain his denial of the Holocaust.
(10) On the other hand, young people are pilloried for worrying out loud that their lengthy, expensive university education may only lead to an unpaid internship.
(11) But the unavoidable irony is that the more he pillories fame, the more famous he becomes, and the more famous he becomes, the more that fame bites back.
(12) Dr Edward Horgan Limerick Ireland It seems that Tony Blair will be pilloried to the end of his days for the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
(13) Pilloried even in their own time, their bloodied names have been brought out like Jacob Marley’s ghost every time America has taken a protectionist turn on trade policy.
(14) The 141-year-old New York-based bank has been pilloried as the exemplar of banking pay excess.
(15) Gordon Brown is pilloried for having said no more boom and bust , but the idea underpinning that was far more ridiculous, and was all Tony Blair's: no more left and right.
(16) At the moment, such enhancements are considered unfair and athletes who seek to evade anti-doping regulations are pilloried as cheats.
(17) The arrival on Twitter of one of society's most divisive figures was welcomed by some, but pilloried by many others.
(18) Heydon saw in the 2010 case of South Australia v Totani, also about control orders, another opportunity to pillory Soviet communism, Bills of Rights and Adelaide, in one splendid, if bewildering, paragraph : Lord Scott’s proposition, notable for its cautious unwillingness to prejudge the French and Soviet dictators, was much more specific than Lord Hope’s.
(19) The 19-year-old forward has found himself pilloried in the last week after Hodgson revealed the youngster had told him he was tired before the Euro 2016 qualifier in Estonia.
(20) I think this latest statement quite clearly makes the case that they have been ‘underzealous’ in the past and they are now doing their job.” Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday, Macdonald said there was “a danger of elevating a pub pillory over a courtroom and I think that’s precisely what’s been happening in recent cases.