Adjacent Words

mistreat definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: treat badly; "This boss abuses his workers"; "She is always stepping on others to get ahead" [syn: mistreat, maltreat, abuse, ill-use, step, ill-treat]

Merriam Webster's

transitive verb Date: 15th century to treat badly ; abuse • mistreatment noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.tr. treat badly. Derivatives: mistreatment n.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Mistreat Mis*treat", v. t. To treat amiss; to abuse.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(mistreats, mistreating, mistreated) If someone mistreats a person or an animal, they treat them badly, especially by making them suffer physically. She has been mistreated by men in the past. = ill-treat VERB: be V-ed

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. Maltreat, abuse, misuse, ill-treat.

Moby Thesaurus

abuse, afflict, aggrieve, batter, befoul, bewitch, blight, bruise, brutalize, buffet, condemn, corrupt, crucify, curse, damage, defile, deprave, despoil, destroy, disadvantage, disserve, distress, do a mischief, do evil, do ill, do violence to, do wrong, do wrong by, do wrong to, doom, envenom, get into trouble, harass, harm, hex, hurt, ill-treat, ill-use, impair, infect, injure, jinx, knock about, maltreat, manhandle, maul, menace, mishandle, misuse, molest, outrage, persecute, play havoc with, play hob with, poison, pollute, prejudice, rough, rough up, savage, scathe, taint, threaten, torment, torture, violate, wound, wreak havoc on, wrong