as in insulting
marked by harsh insulting language
never one to believe that honorable people can disagree honorably, he invariably launches abusive attacks against anyone who dares to challenge him
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Examples Sentences
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Recent Examples of abusive
More than 5,000 posts containing abusive, discriminatory or threatening content.
—
Steve Henson, Los Angeles Times, 14 Jan. 2025
Multiple women told the outlet Gaiman sent them money after their abusive relationships ended and forced them to sign nondisclosure agreements.
—Joseph Wilkinson, New York Daily News, 13 Jan. 2025
The San Diego Rodeo was held for the first time at Petco Park last January — no rodeo had been held in the city since the 1980s before then — and it was protested by animal-rights advocates who called it cruel and abusive.
—Gary Warth, San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 Jan. 2025
Talk about the powerful exchange between Bis [Chyna McQueen] and Millie about their abusive mother’s house being haunted and essentially packed with generational trauma during the second episode.
—Ronda Racha Penrice, The Hollywood Reporter, 6 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for abusive 
Steve Henson, Los Angeles Times, 14 Jan. 2025
Multiple women told the outlet Gaiman sent them money after their abusive relationships ended and forced them to sign nondisclosure agreements.
—Joseph Wilkinson, New York Daily News, 13 Jan. 2025
The San Diego Rodeo was held for the first time at Petco Park last January — no rodeo had been held in the city since the 1980s before then — and it was protested by animal-rights advocates who called it cruel and abusive.
—Gary Warth, San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 Jan. 2025
Talk about the powerful exchange between Bis [Chyna McQueen] and Millie about their abusive mother’s house being haunted and essentially packed with generational trauma during the second episode.
—Ronda Racha Penrice, The Hollywood Reporter, 6 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for abusive
Recent Examples of Synonyms for abusive
Adjective
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This disastrous budget is even more insulting as Los Angeles County grapples with the devastation from four major fires.—
Bill Essayli,
Orange County Register,
11 Jan. 2025
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Hinchcliffe, who is not Puerto Rican, was just plain cruel, insulting and dehumanizing.—
David Plazas,
The Tennessean,
29 Oct. 2024
Adjective
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The two franchises eventually crossed over with the Warriors Orochi games, which mashes up characters from both titles alongside original ones for an outrageous kitchen sink approach with a fantasy bend.—
Christopher Cruz,
Rolling Stone,
17 Jan. 2025
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The kit takes what is already a pretty outrageous sports car and outfits it with an aggressive aero package that features a front lip spoiler, a whole array of fins, and an even larger rear wing that retains the standard version’s DRS functionality.—
Bryan Hood,
Robb Report,
16 Jan. 2025
Adjective
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He was booked on charges of enticing a child under 16, distribution of obscene matter, and lascivious posing and exhibiting a child in the nude.—
Andrea Margolis,
Fox News,
3 Dec. 2024
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Of course, obscene content has been censored, and services that clearly broke intellectual property laws, like Napster, WikiLeaks, and The Pirate Bay were shuttered, but, for the average person, the internet remained broadly open in the United States.—
Callum Booth,
Forbes,
16 Dec. 2024
Adjective
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There are series with lazy writing, shallow characters, boring plots and even offensive elements.—
Kelly Lawler,
USA TODAY,
8 Jan. 2025
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With their offensive leader off his game, plenty of Gators picked up the slack.—
Edgar Thompson,
Orlando Sentinel,
8 Jan. 2025
Adjective
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While conceding that standard phishing methods, those that typically require threat actors to craft malicious emails that are delivered to a wide audience, are relatively easy for email platforms to detect and block, that’s not the case with this phishless attack.—
Davey Winder,
Forbes,
11 Jan. 2025
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Alec Baldwin sues New Mexico, claiming malicious prosecution.—
Ryan Fonseca,
Los Angeles Times,
10 Jan. 2025
Adjective
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Trump’s vituperative persona, his enmity toward multilateralism, and his extreme policy agenda could easily sink the United States’ prospects for meaningful leadership of the G-20.—
Leslie Vinjamuri,
Foreign Affairs,
15 Nov. 2024
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Unlike Rhoades, a vituperative colossus, however, Williams brings a steely determination and a Joe Friday, just-the-facts mien to his lawyering in the court of public opinion.—
Cynthia Littleton,
Variety,
4 Oct. 2024
Adjective
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Facts won’t deter Republicans on this point, however, for the same reason that Trump and his running mate, J. D. Vance, keep repeating their scurrilous lies about Haitian immigrants eating the pets of Ohio: white anxiety about a diversifying country has become one of the Party’s greatest assets.—
Jonathan Blitzer,
The New Yorker,
22 Sep. 2024
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And Harriman was certainly subject to gossip, some of it scurrilous and sexist.—
Margaret Talbot,
The New Yorker,
16 Sep. 2024
Adjective
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Newsletter On Politics In an era of invective and distrust, two California candidates turned a tie over to chance.—
Jess Bidgood,
New York Times,
19 Dec. 2024
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Once more, Donald Trump’s lawyers are attempting to override the guilty verdict of a jury in the Manhattan hush money case, asking the court to toss it while slinging invective at the office of District Attorney Alvin Bragg, which successfully won Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts this year.—
New York Daily News Editorial Board,
New York Daily News,
5 Dec. 2024
Thesaurus Entries Near abusive
Cite this Entry
“Abusive.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/abusive. Accessed 22 Jan. 2025.
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