ill-use
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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"She did not ill-use me. Indeed, I do not believe that she ever knew that I was there at all. Is that not peculiar?"
From "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman
I never saw even the most unfortunate settler ill-use his beast, though all young plow oxen and half-broken broncos, besides a good many old ones, are sufficiently exasperating.
From The Mistress of Bonaventure by Harold Bindloss
Yes, we may so ill-use our bodies that the watchman sleeps at his post!
From My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year by John Henry Jowett
Alvarado, therefore, sent them a most polite invitation to come and make a friendly alliance with him; but all the answer they returned was to ill-use the messengers.
From The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Vol 2 (of 2) Written by Himself Containing a True and Full Account of the Discovery and Conquest of Mexico and New Spain. by Bernal Díaz del Castillo
If they succeeded in taking him alive, they were not to ill-use him, but to show him every courtesy, and to secure his person in the most respectful manner possible.
From The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Vol 2 (of 2) Written by Himself Containing a True and Full Account of the Discovery and Conquest of Mexico and New Spain. by Bernal Díaz del Castillo
That is, except when he is rude, and ill-uses me, and will not come and apologize!’
From The Hand of Ethelberta by Thomas Hardy
Mr. Watts is too modest in his behaviour, and for that reason the young tyrant despises and ill-uses him.
From Athelstane Ford by Allen Upward
The master of this animal never ill-uses him nor scolds him, and at feeding-time the dogs are always served before the men.
From The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 2 by Henry Yule
You'll be good to him, and stand his friend, and teach him seafaring ways, and you'll see that nobody ill-uses him.
From The Sailor by J. C. Snaith
The very readable, if long and winding, “The Calamity Club” focuses on a crew of frequently ill-used, tough-minded white women.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026
The film tells us that she’s had a storied career; we see only a helicopter mom played by an ill-used Annette Bening.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 11, 2022
Well, maybe, though I’m not sure the Joan embodied here by the gifted but ill-used Jo Lampert should be taken as a paradigm for today’s wearers of pink pussy hats.
From New York Times ● Mar. 15, 2017
And actually serious party officials like Spicer were ill-used and degraded.
From US News ● Jul. 20, 2016
Fortunately there was not yet much heat or quickness in my heart, and I said to myself that he was an ignorant man, a foreigner, ill-used and frightened.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
On one occasion, while out walking not far from his home, he encountered some men who were ill-using a fallen horse.
From George Borrow in East Anglia by William A. (William Alfred) Dutt
"These are his sisters too," she thought, "and I have been ill-using them; forgive me, I've done wrong," But the ladies were angry still.
From Primitive Love and Love-Stories by Henry Theophilus Finck
You'd have thought they would have been sick of ill-using me and following me by this time—wouldn't you, now?
From My Friend The Murderer by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
For winning love we win the risk of losing, And losing love is as one's life were riven; It cuts like contumely and keen ill-using To cede what was superfluously given.
From Wessex Poems and Other Verses by Thomas Hardy
Some girl must have been ill-using him, or he imagines that she has.
From The Beetle by Richard Marsh
