Noun

1. Improper treatment or usage; application to a wrong or bad purpose; misuse; perversion.
   • Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty, as well as by the abuses of power.- James Madison
2. Physical or verbal maltreatment; injury.
3. Sexual assault; violation; rape.
4. An unjust, corrupt or wrongful practice or custom; offense; crime; fault.
5. Coarse, insulting speech; abusive language.
   • The two parties, after exchanging a good deal of abuse, came to blows. - Thomas Babington Macaulay

Synonyms

• invective
• contumely
• reproach
• scurrility
• insult
• opprobrium

Etymology 2

Verb

1. To put to a wrong use; to misapply; to use improperly; to misuse; to use for a wrong purpose or end; to pervert; as, to abuse one's authority.
   • This principle (if one may so abuse the word) shoots rapidly into popularity. - James Anthony Froude
2. To injure; to maltreat; to hurt; to treat with cruelty.
3. To rape; to assault; to ravish; to violate.
4. To attack with coarse language; to insult; to revile.
5. To deceive; to trick; to impose on.

   Their eyes red and staring, cozened with a moist cloud, and abused by a double object. - Jeremy Taylor

Synonyms

• maltreat
• injure
• revile
• reproach
• vilify
• vituperate
• asperse
• traduce
• malign