What does "ill-use" mean?

Bad, cruel or unkind treatment.

What is a synonym for "ill-use"?

Common synonyms include: abuse, abuse, active use, appliance, application, atrocity.

Ill-use

//ɪlˈjuːz// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
Bad, cruel or unkind treatment. uncountable

Verb

1
To treat someone badly, cruelly or unkindly.
"A Newcastle shunter, Goodchild, working at one end of Forth Goods Yard, was for some reason moved to the other end, with no loss of pay: he thought he was ill-used and ceased work, as did a number of sympathisers."
2
treat badly wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

abuse abuse active use appliance application atrocity

Example

More examples

"A Newcastle shunter, Goodchild, working at one end of Forth Goods Yard, was for some reason moved to the other end, with no loss of pay: he thought he was ill-used and ceased work, as did a number of sympathisers."

More for "ill-use"

Synonyms Sentences Pronunciation Translate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonyms See usage examples Check pronunciation Browse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.