abuse

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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?"

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.

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.

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.

abuse oneself

To masturbate.

See also: abuse

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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References in periodicals archive ?

By Noimot Olayiwola/Staff Reporter The Qatar Foundation for Child and Women Protection (QFCWP) has received more than 5,000 cases of abuse involving women and children during 2004-2012, an official from the centre disclosed yesterday.

QF centre gets over 5,000 child, women abuse cases

Ottawa, ON -- In 1992, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) published From Pain to Hope (see www.cccb.ca and click on Backgrounders), its study on the issue of sexual abuse of minors by Canadian Catholic clergy.

CCCB taskforce report on clergy sexual abuse

Sometimes it doesn't work to protest and accuse a person who abuses because they could lash out and abuse again in response, or because no one would listen or believe.

The Violence of God: Dialogic Fragments

Even if criminal record checks won't entirely eliminate abuses against elderly residents, perhaps they will at least calm people's exaggerated fears of rampant crime in nursing homes.

Fighting a Modern Legend

Educators are mandated to report suspected child abuse to authorities.

The Educator's Role In Reporting the Emotional Abuse of Children

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

She argued that stronger monitoring was needed to control widespread abuses.

STOPPING Abuse in Prison

Transactions not subject to a specific statutory anti-abuse rule generally have been respected under the case law as long as they are motivated by any legitimate, non-tax purpose.(5) In the absence of a direct expression of congressional concern or a broad delegation of authority to promulgate legislative rules, we submit that Treasury should exercise its authority to prevent abuses either by crafting highly specific anti-abuse guidance or, alternatively, limiting the application of a general anti-abuse rule to instances where tax avoidance is, at a minimum, "the" principal purpose.

Proposed partnership anti-abuse regulations

The present leadership came to power in the 1960s and 1970s, when severe abuses allegedly occurred.

Soviets reenter world psychiatric society

Some months have passed since I wrote about the sexual abuse crisis in the U.S.

Clergy scandals summarized

Sometime early in 1992 I received a book about how to sue one's parents for sexual abuse. Editors receive free unsolicited books almost every day, most of which get shelved with scarcely a backward glance.

Selling Serenity

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

The Catholic Church sex abuse scandal has been a major story in the media for the past few months.

Crisis in the Catholic Church. (Church And State)

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)

The Young Lee incident was the first hint I had of the extremes of student abuse in U.S.