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1. WordNet® 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"

2. 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]

Thesaurus Results for abusive:

1. Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
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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