misuse
Americannoun
-
wrong or improper use; misapplication.
- Synonyms:
- misappropriation, misemployment
-
Obsolete. bad or abusive treatment.
verb (used with object)
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to use wrongly or improperly; misapply.
-
to treat badly or abusively; maltreat.
noun
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erroneous, improper, or unorthodox use
misuse of words
-
cruel or inhumane treatment
verb
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to use wrongly
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to treat badly or harshly
-
to use (something, esp alcohol, drugs, etc) improperly
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
misusesimple
-
misusessimple
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have misusedperfect
-
has misusedperfect
-
am misusingprogressive
-
are misusingprogressive
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is misusingprogressive
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have been misusingperfect progressive
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has been misusingperfect progressive
Past
-
misusedsimple
-
had misusedperfect
-
was misusingprogressive
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were misusingprogressive
-
had been misusingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of misuse
Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at mis- 1, use
Explanation
Misuse is using something incorrectly or in a harmful way. I warned you that repeated misuse of your cellphone would break it — I can't believe you were texting in the shower! You can use this word as a noun or a verb, with just a slight change in pronunciation. As a noun, misuse rhymes moose. But when you misuse the money your parents gave you for groceries, spending it all on candy and comic books, misuse rhymes with confuse. A less-common meaning of the verb is "treat someone badly."
Vocabulary lists containing misuse
mis-
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mis-
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Prefixes: mis-
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"We are confident that the vast majority of accounts identified for misuse have been correctly flagged with the appropriate action taken."
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
Known popularly as the "corn" because of its resemblance to the summer barbecue staple, the towering former communist-era barracks' facelift is already under scrutiny for potential misuse of the central European country's public funds.
From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026
The Commerce Department cited “the U.A.E.’s commitment to preventing the diversion and misuse of sensitive U.S. technology” in a statement on the change.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
Although most incidents involved accidental dosing or therapeutic mistakes rather than intentional misuse, the sheer size of the increase surprised the research team.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 9, 2026
Is it from misuse, like the way Natasha’s father’s been using it lately?
From "The Sun Is Also a Star" by Nicola Yoon
Under current law, queries are reported annually to Congress so misuses of the program are identified.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 13, 2026
Yet one doesn’t need an AI bot to explain why Grammarly’s stunt has to rank among the sleaziest misuses of AI technology yet to appear.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 17, 2026
Safeguards will be in place to ensure victims of sexual crime are not identified and anyone who misuses the footage could face contempt of court proceedings.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2025
Recently, she’s chronicled on X the expulsion of New York Republican George Santos, who was booted from the House following a searing ethics report detailing misuses of campaign funds.
From Salon ● Jan. 18, 2024
It is the intrusion into our matter-of-fact lives of the uncanny element, which the novice so grossly misuses in his tales of premonitory dreams and visions, and of most unghostly ghosts.
From Short Story Writing A Practical Treatise on the Art of The Short Story by Barrett, Charles Raymond
That would give the U.S. influence over the Saudi nuclear program and, Trump administration officials argue, a way to prevent it from being misused for military purposes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
"Let me be absolutely clear: I have done nothing wrong. I have not broken the law in any way at all. I have not misused public money," he added.
From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2026
Meanwhile, writers and actors have expressed worries about their work being misused to train AI models.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 6, 2026
On AI safety, the G7 countries acknowledged "certain risks" posed by AI and that it "may be misused by malicious actors", committing to "adopting an innovation-friendly approach to addressing these risks".
From Barron's ● May 29, 2026
Regression analysis, which attempts to relate the values of quantity X to those of quantity Y, is a very important tool in statistics but is frequently misused.
From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos
PARIS—An appeals court ruled that Marine Le Pen is eligible to run in next year’s presidential election, despite being found guilty of misusing European Parliament funds, reviving the far-right leader’s political fortunes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
In this age of fairness and reason, it’s hard to imagine a government official misusing power to keep secrets, but I’m told it happens.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2026
Mr. Wai was also found guilty of misconduct in public office for misusing government computer systems to search for sensitive information.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 7, 2026
Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, who has contributed to The New York Times, PBS, and Al Jazeera English, was arrested on March 3 for allegedly spreading false information, harming national security and misusing his mobile phone.
From Barron's ● Apr. 25, 2026
My mother said we were misusing the word; you could not call a Kleenex kira-kira.
From "Kira-Kira" by Cynthia Kadohata
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
