MISUSED Synonyms: 63 Similar and Opposite Words

misused

verb

past tense of misuse

as in abused

to put to a bad or improper use an actor who misused his considerable talent by appearing in too many lousy movies

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as in bullied

to inflict physical or emotional harm upon sadly misused by the people he had trusted

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Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of misused The company also said, without much hedging, that some of those same capabilities could be misused once the guardrails came off. — Craig S. Smith, Forbes.com, 19 June 2026 The administration has argued that the program is being misused and has lost its temporary nature. — Maureen Groppe, USA Today, 25 June 2026 No company is immune to data breaches or leaks, and there is always the risk that sensitive data will be misused by companies or bad actors. — Justyn Newman, PC Magazine, 22 June 2026 Peregrine doesn’t use facial recognition, doesn’t create or collect new data, and builds active flagging mechanisms, not passive ones, when data is misused. — Lily Mae Lazarus, Fortune, 22 June 2026 Over 10% of study participants with eating disorders misused the GLP-1. — Dr. Samantha Aquino Calpo, ABC News, 24 June 2026 Anthropic released Claude Fable 5 to the public earlier this month, with safeguards the company said would reduce the risk of it being misused for cyberattacks or other nefarious purposes. — Joe Walsh, CBS News, 1 July 2026 The Press-Enterprise reported a Riverside County supervisor is seeking an investigation into whether the sheriff misused public resources, including his uniform, official events, county equipment, and the sheriff’s office’s social media channels, during his run for governor. — Ben Paviour, Sacbee.com, 26 June 2026 The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), aka the UK’s data protection watchdog, has now concluded a two-year investigation into the incident and has found that sensitive personal information was indeed deliberately misused. — Lizzie Lanuza, StyleCaster, 22 June 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for misused

abused

Verb

Some dogs fear brooms, vacuum cleaners or other household products, particularly if they’ve been hurt or abused in the past.

— BestReviews, Mercury News, 2 July 2026
Lamar called out Drake for allegedly having a secret child, and Drake claimed that Kendrick abused his fiancée.

— René Ostberg, Encyclopedia Britannica, 2 July 2026

Definition of abused

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misuse

misused

misuses

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“Misused.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/misused. Accessed 7 Jul. 2026.

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Synonyms of misused

verb

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