Search Result for "abusive": 
Wordnet 3.0

ADJECTIVE (2)

1. expressing offensive reproach;
[syn: abusive, opprobrious, scurrilous]

2. characterized by physical or psychological maltreatment;
- Example: "abusive punishment"
- Example: "argued...that foster homes are abusive"


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Abusive \A*bu"sive\, a. [Cf. F. abusif, fr. L. abusivus.] 1. Wrongly used; perverted; misapplied. [1913 Webster] I am . . . necessitated to use the word Parliament improperly, according to the abusive acceptation thereof. --Fuller. [1913 Webster] 2. Given to misusing; also, full of abuses. [Archaic] "The abusive prerogatives of his see." --Hallam. [1913 Webster] 3. Practicing abuse; prone to ill treat by coarse, insulting words or by other ill usage; as, an abusive author; an abusive fellow. [1913 Webster] 4. Containing abuse, or serving as the instrument of abuse; vituperative; reproachful; scurrilous. "An abusive lampoon." --Johnson. [1913 Webster] 5. Tending to deceive; fraudulent; cheating. [Obs.] "An abusive treaty." --Bacon. [1913 Webster] Syn: Reproachful; scurrilous; opprobrious; insolent; insulting; injurious; offensive; reviling. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

abusive adj 1: expressing offensive reproach [syn: abusive, opprobrious, scurrilous] 2: characterized by physical or psychological maltreatment; "abusive punishment"; "argued...that foster homes are abusive"
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

122 Moby Thesaurus words for "abusive": Rabelaisian, atrocious, back-biting, backhand, backhanded, belittling, bitchy, blackening, blameful, blasphemous, bludgeoning, blustering, browbeating, brutal, bulldozing, bullying, calumniatory, calumnious, catty, censorious, comminatory, condemnatory, contemptuous, contumelious, corrupt, crooked, cruel, cursing, damnatory, defamatory, degrading, denunciatory, deprecative, deprecatory, depreciative, depreciatory, derisive, derisory, derogative, derogatory, destructive, detractory, dirty, dishonest, disparaging, dysphemistic, epithetic, excommunicative, excommunicatory, execrating, execrative, execratory, fear-inspiring, filthy, foreboding, foul, fulminatory, harmful, hectoring, humiliating, hurtful, imminent, imprecatory, improper, incorrect, injurious, insolent, insulting, intimidating, invective, inveighing, judgmental, left-handed, libelous, lowering, maledictory, maligning, menacing, minacious, minatory, minimizing, misapplied, objurgatory, obscene, odious, offending, offensive, ominous, opprobrious, outrageous, pejorative, perverted, priggish, profane, raw, reproachful, reprobative, reviling, ribald, ridiculing, risque, rude, scandalous, scatologic, scoffing, scurrile, scurrilous, slanderous, slighting, smutty, terroristic, terrorizing, threatening, threatful, truculent, unspeakable, venal, vile, vilifying, vituperative, vulgar, wrong