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To treat or use improperly; to use to a bad purpose; to misapply; as, to misuse one's talents. South. The sweet poison of misused wine. Milton.

Misuse. [Obs.]

One who misuses. "Wretched misusers of language." Coleridge.

To put to a wrong use; to misapply; to misuse; to put to a bad use; to use for a wrong purpose or end; to pervert; as, to abuse inherited gold; to make an excessive use of; as, to abuse one's authority. This principle (if one may so abuse the word) shoots rapidly into popularity. Froude.

To bring into a condition of decay or partial ruin, by misuse or through neglect; to destroy the fairness and good condition of; -- said of a building. If the bishop, parson, or vicar, etc., dilapidates the buildings, or cuts down the timber of the patrimony. Blackstone.

A grotesque misuse of a word; a word so used.

To use for a bad purpose; to abuse; to misuse; as, to misimprove time, talents, advantages, etc. South.

To waste or misuse, as one does who is stupid or intoxicated. [R.] They muddle it [money] away without method or object, and without having anything to show for it. Hazlitt.

A not using; failure to use. An office may be forfeited by misuser or nonuser. Blackstone.

A commission to force men into public service, particularly into the navy. I have misused the king's press. Shak. Press gang, or Pressgang, a detachment of seamen under the command of an officer empowered to force men into the naval service. See Impress gang, under Impress. -- Press money, money paid to a man enlisted…

An oversounding, or a misuse, of the letter r; specifically (Phylol.), the tendency, exhibited in the Indo-European languages, to change s to r, as wese to were.

To mar; to injure; to deface; hence, to destroy by misuse; to waste. [Obs.] They [the colors] disfigure the stuff and spill the whole workmanship. Puttenham. Spill not the morning, the quintessence of day, in recreations. Fuller.

not protected by the registration acts, but a qualified common-law protection against its misuse exists, analogous to that existing in the case of trade-marks.

e. Prov. xx. 1. Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape Crushed the sweet poison of misused wine. Milton.