abusive

UK/əˈbjuː.sɪv/US/əˈbju.sɪv/

adjectiveB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,585 of 15,258neutral

Abusive means cruel or insulting in the way it treats somebody. An abusive relationship, abusive language, become abusive.

An abusive relationship is not only a violent one: control over money, movement and contact with other people is recognised as abuse in law in a growing number of countries, and coercive control is now a criminal offence in Britain.

Definitions of abusive

1adjectiveabusiveCruel or insulting in the way it treats somebody.B2
“The customer became abusive and started shouting insults at the waiter.”

abusive is a quality.

Where it comes from

Latin abusivus comes from abuti, to misuse — ab, away, plus uti, to use.

Latin
abūsīvus
French
abusif
English, today
abusive

Built from

-ivus · Latin — -ive

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

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

abusive in the wild

Hate mail often contains exceptionally abusive, foul or otherwise hurtful language.
Hate mail
Walker to explain patterns of behavior in an abusive relationship.
Cycle of abuse
The book documents cases of churches and other organizations said to be spiritually abusive and the effects these groups have had on their members.
Churches That Abuse
Enroth outlines the backgrounds of the leaders of these groups and explains how the groups evolved to the point of becoming spiritually abusive.
Churches That Abuse
Many abuse victims who experience trauma bonding return to the abusive relationship.
Traumatic bonding

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the -ivus family

abusive apprehensive

abusive — used about once every 2,055 pages · #6,585 · point at the bar for the others

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