• IPA: /mɪsˈjuːs/

misuse

1. An incorrect, improper or unlawful use#Noun|use of something.

• French: mésusage
• German: missbräuchliche Nutzung, Fehlbedienung, Fehlgebrauch, Fehlnutzung, Missbrauch, Zweckentfremdung
• Spanish: mal uso

• IPA: /mɪsˈjuːz/

misuse (misuses, present participle misusing; past and past participle misused)

1. (transitive) To use (something) incorrectly. [from 14th c.]
2. (transitive) To abuse or mistreat (something or someone). [from 14th c.]
3. (transitive) To rape (a woman); later more generally, to sexually abuse (someone). [from 14th c.]
   • 2013, Philipp Meyer, The Son, Simon & Schuster 2014, p. 326:

     “If that is true she would be the first case I have ever heard of, as most female captives are misused by the entire tribe.”

4. (obsolete, transitive) To abuse verbally, to insult. [16th-17th c.]
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 54573970 ↗, partition II, section 3, member 7:

     Socrates was brought upon the stage by Aristophanes, and misused to his face: but he laughed, as if it concerned him not […].

• German: missbrauchen, zweckentfremden
• Russian: злоупотребля́ть

• German: missbrauchen
• Spanish: abusar