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abusive

Pronunciation: /əˈbjuː.sɪv/

The English word “abusive” has 6 meanings listed here.

adjective

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

Etymology

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

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.