ill-use

Questions about ill-use

What does ill-use mean?

ill-use means "treat badly".

How many syllables are in ill-use?

ill-use has 2 syllables: il-l-use. The stress falls on "l-use".

What is another word for ill-use?

Close synonyms include mistreat, maltreat, abuse, step, ill-treat. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is ill-use a common word?

ill-use is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.