abuse

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abuse of distress

The wrongful or unlawful use or sale of property that has been seized in order to force payment or the performance of some contractual obligation (known in law as the process of distress or distrain). It was a clear case of abuse of distress: the landlord, without a court order, changed the locks on the door and then seized and sold the tenants' belongings only an hour after serving them a notice of eviction.
See also: abuse, distress, of

abuse of privileges

The wrongful or unlawful misuse of power in one's duties, either at the expense of others or to the advantage of the abuser. The governor displayed a flagrant abuse of privileges, channeling state funds toward a project owned by her son-in-law at the expense of more worthwhile causes. The moderator was deemed to have committed an abuse of privileges, deleting comments that opposed his own.
See also: abuse, of, privilege

be wide open to (something)

To be a likely target of anger, criticism, or judgment. You will be wide open to discipline if you keep coming into work late. Because I'm an artist and all of my siblings are doctors, I'm always wide open to criticism at family functions.
See also: open, wide

abuse (oneself)

To masturbate. A: "Why is he all embarrassed today?" B: "Oh, his crush walked in on him abusing himself. How horrifying is that?"
See also: abuse

abuse oneself

To masturbate.
See also: abuse
References in periodicals archive ?
Some months have passed since I wrote about the sexual abuse crisis in the U.
It was in Boston that the revelations of massive abuse by priests began in the fall of 2001, due to the relentless probing of the Boston Globe, which blew the issue of priestly sex abuse wide open across public America.
Clergy scandals summarized
At the same time, would-be mentors may fear working one-on-one with troubled young people--especially now that accusations of same-sex abuse are at an all-time high.
Mentor with care: with same-sex child abuse much in the news, gay adults may hesitate to work with youth. But most agencies have effective policies to protect their charges and avoid even the appearance of impropriety. (Young & Gay in the USA)
Educators are mandated to report suspected child abuse to authorities.
The Educator's Role In Reporting the Emotional Abuse of Children
Sometime early in 1992 I received a book about how to sue one's parents for sexual abuse.
Selling Serenity
Then I ask the 44-year-old Native Canadian about his time in prison (an incarceration in the early 1970s for a crime he claims he did not commit) and the sexual abuse he suffered at the Gordon's Indian Residential School in the 1960s.
Sins of the fathers: the legacy of Indian residential schools is one of physical and emotional scars, nasty lawsuits, a questionable medical study, and suicide
Although the goal of ending abuses of the tax system is laudable, promulgating amorphous maxims is, in our view, no way to run an administrable tax system.
Proposed partnership anti-abuse regulations
The Dallas meeting registered no advance on omissions one and three: nothing was said about either the accountability of bishops, or about the causes of the sex abuses.
U.S. clergy scandal
According to my experience, abuses perpetrated on M.
Medical student abuse: a student's perspective
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