MISUSED

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does misused mean? 

• MISUSED (adjective)
  The adjective MISUSED has 1 sense:

1. used incorrectly or carelessly or for an improper purpose

  Familiarity information: MISUSED used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MISUSED (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Used incorrectly or carelessly or for an improper purpose

Context example:

misused words are often laughable but one weeps for misused talents

Similar:

abused (used improperly or excessively especially drugs)

exploited; ill-used; put-upon; used; victimised; victimized ((of persons) taken advantage of)

Antonym:

used (employed in accomplishing something)

 Context examples 

“Nay, nay, no one has misused me,” he answered.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The law also includes standards for setting up secure electronic health records and to protect the privacy of a person’s health information and to keep it from being misused.

(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, NCI Dictionary)

When misused or abused, opioid pain relievers can be addictive and dangerous.

(Designing more effective opioids, NIH)

So it was, when the doom of fifty years of living death was uttered by Judge Scott, that Jim Hall, hating all things in the society that misused him, rose up and raged in the court-room until dragged down by half a dozen of his blue- coated enemies.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

An office within the National Institutes of Health that monitors scientific progress in basic and clinical research involving recombinant DNA and human gene transfer, advises federal departments and agencies on ways to minimize the possibility that knowledge and technologies emanating from vitally important biological research will be misused to threaten public health or national security, provides policy advice to the Department of Health and Human Services on the broad array of complex medical, ethical, legal, and social issues raised by the development and use of genetic technologies and Xenotransplantation.

(Office of Biotechnology Activities, NCI Thesaurus)

Two inferences, however, were plainly deduced from the whole: one, that Elizabeth was the real cause of the mischief; and the other that she herself had been barbarously misused by them all; and on these two points she principally dwelt during the rest of the day.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

These pain relievers are generally safe when taken for a short time and as prescribed by a doctor, but are frequently misused because they also produce euphoria.

(Designing more effective opioids, NIH)