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misuse. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
misuse, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
misuse in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
misuse you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology 1
mis- + use (noun)
Pronunciation
Noun
misuse (countable and uncountable, plural misuses)
- An incorrect, improper or unlawful use of something.
2012 June 4, Lewis Smith, “Queen’s English Society says enuf is enough, innit?: Society formed 40 years ago to protect language against poor spelling and grammar closes because too few people care”, in The Guardian, London, archived from the original on 10 March 2016:The Queen may be celebrating her jubilee but the Queen's English Society, which has railed against the misuse and deterioration of the English language, is to fold.
Translations
incorrect, improper or unlawful use
Etymology 2
mis- + use (verb)
Pronunciation
Verb
misuse (third-person singular simple present misuses, present participle misusing, simple past and past participle misused or (obsolete) misust)
- (transitive) To use (something) incorrectly.
- (transitive) To abuse or mistreat (something or someone).
- (transitive) To rape (a woman); later more generally, to sexually abuse (someone).
2013, Philipp Meyer, The Son, Simon & Schuster, published 2014, page 326:“If that is true she would be the first case I have ever heard of, as most female captives are misused by the entire tribe.”
- (obsolete, transitive) To abuse verbally, to insult.
1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: , 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 3, member 7:Socrates was brought upon the stage by Aristophanes, and misused to his face: but he laughed, as if it concerned him not […].
Translations
to use something incorrectly
to abuse or mistreat something or someone
Anagrams