ABUSIVE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Abusive

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/əbjˈusɪv/ Listen

adjective

Abusive adj.

Wrongly used; perverted; misapplied. "I am... necessitated to use the word Parliament improperly, according to the abusive acceptation thereof."

Given to misusing; also, full of abuses. (Archaic) "The abusive prerogatives of his see."

Practicing abuse; prone to ill treat by coarse, insulting words or by other ill usage; as, an abusive author; an abusive fellow.

Containing abuse, or serving as the instrument of abuse; vituperative; reproachful; scurrilous. "An abusive lampoon."

Tending to deceive; fraudulent; cheating. (Obs.) "An abusive treaty."

Synonyms: Reproachful; scurrilous; opprobrious; insolent; insulting; injurious; offensive; reviling.

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Etymology of 'Abusive'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Abusive" Quotes from Famous Books

... temper, and Ernest was forced to admit that unforeseen developments might arise to disconcert him. They say it takes nine tailors to make a man, but Ernest felt that it would take at least nine Ernests to make a Mr Holt. How if, as soon as Ernest came in, the tailor were to become violent and abusive? What could he do? Mr Holt was in his own lodgings, and had a right to be undisturbed. A legal right, yes, but had he a moral right? Ernest thought not, considering his mode of life. But put this on one side; if the man were to be violent, what should he do? Paul ...

— The Way of All Flesh • Samuel Butler

... and Mr. Jobling together closed on Mr. Guppy's mother (who began to be quite abusive) and took her, very much against her will, downstairs, her voice rising a stair higher every time her figure got a stair lower, and insisting that we should immediately go and find somebody who was good enough for us, and above all things ...

— Bleak House • Charles Dickens

... drove the men to their work but they were less abusive than usual. They seemed to reflect Blackbeard's milder humor and it was manifest that they wished to avoid the crew's resentment. Joe Hawkridge was puzzled and began to ferret it out among his ...

— Blackbeard: Buccaneer • Ralph D. Paine

... exposed to this oppression without a remedy. Though men of reflection, too, have some times complained of the law of settlements as a public grievance; yet it has never been the object of any general popular clamour, such as that against general warrants, an abusive practice undoubtedly, but such a one as was not likely to occasion any general oppression. There is scarce a poor man in England, of forty years of age, I will venture to say, who has not, in some part of his life, ...

— An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations • Adam Smith

... always anxious to conciliate public favor. They know that they exist by sufferance—by sufferance of a mightier than themselves. In proportion as they know themselves to be aggressors and spoliators their anxiety increases. Every abusive power in the world is thus driven to adopt schemes and devices—some dangerous and some merely ludicrous—to keep a footing at that silent bar of opinion before which all wrong must, sooner or later, quail ...

— The Arena - Volume 18, No. 92, July, 1897 • Various

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