ILL-TREAT

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does ill-treat mean? 

• ILL-TREAT (verb)
  The verb ILL-TREAT has 1 sense:

1. treat badly

  Familiarity information: ILL-TREAT used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ILL-TREAT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they ill-treat    ... he / she / it ill-treats   
Past simple: ill-treated   
Past participle: ill-treated   
-ing form: ill-treating   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Treat badly

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

abuse; ill-treat; ill-use; maltreat; mistreat; step

Context example:

She is always stepping on others to get ahead

Hypernyms (to "ill-treat" is one way to...):

do by; handle; treat (interact in a certain way)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "ill-treat"):

kick around (treat badly; abuse)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

They want to ill-treat the prisoners

Derivation:

ill-treatment (cruel or inhumane treatment)

 Context examples 

He was forever ill-treating her, and she too proud to complain.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“So I stepped in,” said my aunt, “and made him an offer. I said, “Your brother's sane—a great deal more sane than you are, or ever will be, it is to be hoped. Let him have his little income, and come and live with me. I am not afraid of him, I am not proud, I am ready to take care of him, and shall not ill-treat him as some people (besides the asylum-folks) have done.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But the old king was very angry when he saw how his daughter behaved, and how she ill-treated all his guests; and he vowed that, willing or unwilling, she should marry the first man, be he prince or beggar, that came to the door.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Instead of living for, in, and with yourself, as a reasonable being ought, you seek only to fasten your feebleness on some other person's strength: if no one can be found willing to burden her or himself with such a fat, weak, puffy, useless thing, you cry out that you are ill-treated, neglected, miserable.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

But as I was out of all fear of being ill-treated under the protection of so great and good an empress, the ornament of nature, the darling of the world, the delight of her subjects, the phoenix of the creation, so I hoped my late master’s apprehensions would appear to be groundless; for I already found my spirits revive, by the influence of her most august presence.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)