abusive

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj

Prone to treat someone badly by coarse, insulting words or other maltreatment; vituperative; reproachful; scurrilous.
Tending to deceive; fraudulent.
Tending to misuse; practising or containing abuse.
Being physically or emotionally injurious; characterized by repeated violence or other abuse.
Wrongly used; perverted; misapplied; unjust; illegal.
Catachrestic.

/əˈbjuː.sɪv/ /əˈbju.sɪv/ /əˈbju.zɪv/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Mélange a trois-abusive.wav

abusive more abusive most abusive

First attested in the 1530s. From French abusif, from Latin abūsīvus, from abusus + -ivus (“-ive”). Equivalent to abuse + -ive.

scurrilous reproachful opprobrious insolent insulting injurious offensive reviling berating vituperative

abuseless nonabusive unabusive

abusively abusiveness abusivity

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.

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