maltreat
Americanverb (used with object)
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maltreats,
present (3rd person singular)
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maltreated,
past participle, past
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maltreating
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
maltreatsimple
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maltreatssimple
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have maltreatedperfect
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has maltreatedperfect
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am maltreatingprogressive
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are maltreatingprogressive
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is maltreatingprogressive
-
have been maltreatingperfect progressive
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has been maltreatingperfect progressive
Past
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maltreatedsimple
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had maltreatedperfect
-
was maltreatingprogressive
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were maltreatingprogressive
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had been maltreatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of maltreat
First recorded in 1700–10; earlier maltrait, from French maltraiter; see mal-, treat
Explanation
If you maltreat someone, you treat them very badly. It's best not to maltreat your little sister — she may grow up to be bigger, stronger, and smarter than you. Also, it's just not very nice. If you're cruel to someone on purpose, you maltreat them. You can also say abuse or mistreat. If a big company maltreats its workers, they may rebel by going on strike or joining a lawsuit. This verb combines the prefix mal-, "badly, poorly, or wrong," and the word treat, from the Latin root tractare, "manage or handle."
Vocabulary lists containing maltreat
Florida's B.E.S.T. Roots: mal
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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:
Bosses and colleagues who maltreat subordinates with ridicule or lack of consideration are as common as the companies who protect them.
From Salon ● Jan. 22, 2022
“How can you maltreat such a beautiful woman?” he was said to have asked the errant husband.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 14, 2019
Perhaps the subtlest of all his comic achievements is his parody of the way in which many people from his own proletarian background maltreat the culture they so earnestly desire to achieve.
From Time Magazine Archive
There the President became a member of the Arctic Brotherhood and took an oath never to maltreat horse or dog.
From Time Magazine Archive
But Helli was firm and despite her threats his wife did not dare to maltreat the Grouse.
From Mighty Mikko A Book of Finnish Fairy Tales and Folk Tales by Parker Fillmore
To a newcomer like Davenant, the experience is a trial that maltreats his body and corrodes his spirit.
From Time Magazine Archive
Missis Rucker merely sets fire to Jennie about the way she maltreats Dave; an' she says Jennie's drivin' him locoed, an' no wonder.
From Wolfville Nights by Alfred Henry Lewis
The young girl pleading God's cause was unreasonable with the old man, as a spoilt child sometimes maltreats its mother.
From Ursula by Katharine Prescott Wormeley
If one boy maltreats another, within school-bounds, or within school-hours, that is a matter for me to settle.
From The Story of a Bad Boy by Thomas Bailey Aldrich
We have, however, hitherto seen only how the single bourgeois maltreats the proletariat upon his own account.
From The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844 with a Preface written in 1892 by Florence Kelley
They have described using such tools as a moral imperative, insisting that child welfare officials should draw from all data at their disposal to make sure children aren’t maltreated.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 14, 2023
Aruma spends most of his time relaxing in hammocks, though Ossio says that during the pandemic the center has seen a rise in animals who were trafficked, maltreated or abandoned.
From Reuters ● Feb. 2, 2022
The film’s smartest insights come from observing how maltreated children bear their secrets.
From New York Times ● Oct. 28, 2021
Juvenile courts like the one handling Mary’s case recognize that providing safety, stability, and pathways to higher education and employment for youth who have been maltreated is crucial to their long-term well-being.
From Slate ● Jun. 30, 2021
“No, the tramps who maltreated you so, stole everything.”
From Girl Scouts at Dandelion Camp by Lillian Elizabeth Roy
“If people continue maltreating the sacred lake like this, it will expand again and drown all the villages and towns around it.”
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 18, 2024
"Why are you harassing him and why are you maltreating not only him, but his family and an entire nation that is free and proud."
From Fox News ● Jan. 15, 2022
"The surest way to work up a crusade in favor of some good cause is to promise people they will have a chance of maltreating someone," Huxley wrote in the novel.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2016
McDermott, who was not implicated in the SOS scandal, was charged with four department violations, including bringing discredit on the department and disrespecting or maltreating a person on or off duty.
From Chicago Tribune ● Oct. 17, 2014
A young man who has been locked up in prison for a week for maltreating a policeman can hardly expect to be entrusted with such concerns as those of Travers and Treason.
From Ayala's Angel by Anthony Trollope
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.
