Definition of "ill-use" [ill-use]

To maltreat. (verb-transitive)
Unjust or poor treatment; ill-usage. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "ill-use" in a sentence

"[Be] sly and artful in his behaviour to some, and imperious and cruel to others; being under a kind of necessity to ill-use all the persons of whom he stood in need, when he could not frighten them into compliance, and did not judge it his interest to be useful to them."
"I went for her, when I saw he meant to ill-use thee ..."
"Then by ill-use of God's Law, Jews turn these poor Gentiles, through guilt and despair, to hatred for God."

Words like "ill-use"

abuse do by handle

ill-treat ill-used

ill-using

illtreat kick around maltreat

mistreat treat