Meaning
1. To use ill; to maltreat; to misuse; to use with bad motives or to wrong purposes; as, to abuse rights or privileges.
They that use this world as not abusing it. 1 Cor 7.
2. To violate; to defile by improper sexual intercourse.
3. To deceive; to impose on.
Nor be with all these tempting words abused.
4. To treat rudely, or with reproachful language; to revile.
He mocked and abused them shamefully.
5. To pervert the meaning of; to misapply; as to abuse words.
ABU'SE, n. Ill use; improper treatment or employment; application to a wrong purpose; as an abuse of our natural powers; an abuse of civil rights, or of religious privileges; abuse of advantages, _c.
Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty, as well as by the abuses of power.
2. A corrupt practice or custom, as the abuses of government.
3. Rude speech; reproachful language addressed to a person; contumely; reviling words.
4. Seduction.
After the abuse he forsook me.
5. Perversion of meaning; improper use or application; as an abuse of words.
