maltreat
Americanverb (used with object)
-
maltreats,
present (3rd person singular)
-
maltreated,
past participle, past
-
maltreating
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
maltreatsimple
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maltreatssimple
-
have maltreatedperfect
-
has maltreatedperfect
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am maltreatingprogressive
-
are maltreatingprogressive
-
is maltreatingprogressive
-
have been maltreatingperfect progressive
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has been maltreatingperfect progressive
Past
-
maltreatedsimple
-
had maltreatedperfect
-
was maltreatingprogressive
-
were maltreatingprogressive
-
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
There the President became a member of the Arctic Brotherhood and took an oath never to maltreat horse or dog.
From Time Magazine Archive
A member of the Arctic Brotherhood who took 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
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
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
She imperiously bids man sustain and reproduce himself, and this is one of the places where in the very act of obedience he wounds and maltreats her.
From Anna of the Five Towns by Arnold Bennett
Poor man, why is Poseidon so wroth with thee that he maltreats thee thus?
From Stories from the Odyssey by H. L. (Herbert Lord) Havell
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
No matter what, indigenous women have to deal with the fact that our stories occasionally will be maltreated even after we reach assemblages of success.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 1, 2018
Because of that, a pediatrician might encourage preventative psychotherapy or, more draconically, perhaps child services will check in to ensure he’s not being maltreated.
From Slate ● May 23, 2018
The adherents of the different doctors had reviled, anathematised, and maltreated each other without their quarrels making any noise.
From Ecce Homo! A Critical Inquiry into the History of Jesus of Nazareth: Being a Rational Analysis of the Gospels by Paul Henry Thiry Baron d' Holbach
“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
He is indignant with you, already, for maltreating his son when you had him under arrest at another time.
From The High School Boys in Summer Camp by H. Irving (Harrie Irving) Hancock
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.
