abusive

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
abusive
    adj 1: expressing offensive reproach [syn: {abusive},
           {opprobrious}, {scurrilous}]
    2: characterized by physical or psychological maltreatment;
       "abusive punishment"; "argued...that foster homes are
       abusive"
    
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Abusive \A*bu"sive\, a. [Cf. F. abusif, fr. L. abusivus.]
   1. Wrongly used; perverted; misapplied.
      [1913 Webster]

            I am . . . necessitated to use the word Parliament
            improperly, according to the abusive acceptation
            thereof.                              --Fuller.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Given to misusing; also, full of abuses. [Archaic] "The
      abusive prerogatives of his see." --Hallam.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. Practicing abuse; prone to ill treat by coarse, insulting
      words or by other ill usage; as, an abusive author; an
      abusive fellow.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. Containing abuse, or serving as the instrument of abuse;
      vituperative; reproachful; scurrilous. "An abusive
      lampoon." --Johnson.
      [1913 Webster]

   5. Tending to deceive; fraudulent; cheating. [Obs.] "An
      abusive treaty." --Bacon.
      [1913 Webster]

   Syn: Reproachful; scurrilous; opprobrious; insolent;
        insulting; injurious; offensive; reviling.
        [1913 Webster]
    
from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
122 Moby Thesaurus words for "abusive":
      Rabelaisian, atrocious, back-biting, backhand, backhanded,
      belittling, bitchy, blackening, blameful, blasphemous, bludgeoning,
      blustering, browbeating, brutal, bulldozing, bullying,
      calumniatory, calumnious, catty, censorious, comminatory,
      condemnatory, contemptuous, contumelious, corrupt, crooked, cruel,
      cursing, damnatory, defamatory, degrading, denunciatory,
      deprecative, deprecatory, depreciative, depreciatory, derisive,
      derisory, derogative, derogatory, destructive, detractory, dirty,
      dishonest, disparaging, dysphemistic, epithetic, excommunicative,
      excommunicatory, execrating, execrative, execratory,
      fear-inspiring, filthy, foreboding, foul, fulminatory, harmful,
      hectoring, humiliating, hurtful, imminent, imprecatory, improper,
      incorrect, injurious, insolent, insulting, intimidating, invective,
      inveighing, judgmental, left-handed, libelous, lowering,
      maledictory, maligning, menacing, minacious, minatory, minimizing,
      misapplied, objurgatory, obscene, odious, offending, offensive,
      ominous, opprobrious, outrageous, pejorative, perverted, priggish,
      profane, raw, reproachful, reprobative, reviling, ribald,
      ridiculing, risque, rude, scandalous, scatologic, scoffing,
      scurrile, scurrilous, slanderous, slighting, smutty, terroristic,
      terrorizing, threatening, threatful, truculent, unspeakable, venal,
      vile, vilifying, vituperative, vulgar, wrong

    

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