Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Bad treatment; ill-use.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun cruel or inhumane treatment.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun bad, cruel or unkind treatment

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun cruel or inhumane treatment

Etymologies

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Examples

  • He spoke in a slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had ill-usage at the hands of fortune.

    Sole Music 2010

  • Then on, over those endless sparse hollows and hills, with the grasses blowing in the wind, while my body ached with ill-usage and weariness, and my unaccustomed backside must have rivalled the setting sun.

    Isabelle Estelle Bruno 2010

  • Now, if a man doth turn his eyes to a single phase of fortune, and meets ill-usage at heaven's hands, 'tis hard no doubt; but still it can be borne; but I in countless troubles am involved.

    Helen 2008

  • I know not what to advise — the lad who carries this is a good lad — active for his friend — and I have pledged my honour he shall have no personal ill-usage.

    Redgauntlet 2008

  • She was passionately attached to her husband, by whom she was treated with a callous, yet polite indifference, which, to one whose heart was as tender as her judgment was weak, was more painful perhaps than absolute ill-usage.

    My Aunt Margaret's Mirror 2008

  • She was passionately attached to her husband, by whom she was treated with a callous, yet polite indifference, which, to one whose heart was as tender as her judgment was weak, was more painful perhaps than absolute ill-usage.

    My Aunt Margaret's Mirror 2008

  • While I was yet at the University, I saw, I adored, and I pursued the fairest flower that ever put forth its sweet buds, the softest heart that ever was broken by ill-usage!

    Cecilia 2008

  • Now, if a man doth turn his eyes to a single phase of fortune, and meets ill-usage at heaven's hands, 'tis hard no doubt; but still it can be borne; but I in countless troubles am involved.

    Helen 2008

  • Without noticing this threat, Mr. Butler replied, “That he had not attended to the risk of ill-usage which the poor woman might undergo at the hands of the rabble, and that he would give her the necessary admonition in private, instead of bringing her before the assembled session.”

    The Heart of Mid-Lothian 2007

  • Not only did Isabella the Catholic always show herself the protectress of Columbus, but she was also the protectess of the American aborigines against the ill-usage of the colonists and adventurers.

    Archive 2007-10-28 de Brantigny........................ 2007

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