abusive

Meaning

Adjective

• 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.

Related

Similar words

• reproachful, scurrilous, opprobrious, insolent, insulting, injurious, offensive, reviling, , vituperative

Origin

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