as in to abuse
to inflict physical or emotional harm upon
some of the employees felt so ill-used by the new manager that they quit
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ill-use
Verb
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According to Variety and Puck, the film was originally set to dramatize Jackson being accused of abusing 13‑year‑old Jordan Chandler in 1993.—
Brendan Morrow,
USA Today,
14 June 2026 -
The lawsuit, filed in December, claims that the Litchfield Middle School failed to act on a complaint from the 1980s that Driscoll was allegedly abusing students before Fitterer and Bird were middle school students in the 1990s.—
Lori Riley,
Hartford Courant,
14 June 2026
Verb
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A little over a month later, another spell of freezing weather bullied its way into Central Florida and slammed the remaining citrus groves that had just started to recover.—
Martin E. Comas,
The Orlando Sentinel,
14 June 2026
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With Ethan Hawke's newbie simmering against the go-for-broke finesse of Denzel Washington's very bad, no-good officer, Training Day revels in tension, with washes of blue and green augmenting scenes where Hawke is bullied into getting high.—
Eric Farwell,
Entertainment Weekly,
12 June 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Ill-use.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ill-use. Accessed 21 Jun. 2026.
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