different between abusive vs caustic

English

Etymology

First attested in the 1530s. From French abusif, from Latin ab?s?vus, from abusus + -ivus (“-ive”). Equivalent to abuse +? -ive.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??bju?.s?v/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??bju.s?v/, /??bju.z?v/

Adjective

abusive (comparative more abusive, superlative most abusive)

1. Prone to treat someone badly by coarse, insulting words or other maltreatment; vituperative; reproachful; scurrilous. [First attested in the early 17th century.]

2. (obsolete) Tending to deceive; fraudulent. [Attested only from the early to mid 17th century.]
   • 1623, Francis Bacon, A Discourse of a War with Spain

     an abusive treaty

3. (archaic) Tending to misuse; practising or containing abuse. [First attested in the late 16th century.]
4. Being physically or emotionally injurious; characterized by repeated violence or other abuse.
5. Wrongly used; perverted; misapplied; unjust; illegal. [First attested in the mid 16th century.]
6. (archaic) Catachrestic. [First attested in the mid 16th century.]

Synonyms

• (prone to treating badly): reproachful, scurrilous, opprobrious, insolent, insulting, injurious, offensive, reviling, berating, vituperative

Derived terms

• abusively
• abusiveness

Translations

References

French

Adjective

abusive

1. feminine singular of abusif

Italian

Adjective

abusive

1. feminine plural of abusivo

Latin

Adjective

ab?s?ve

1. vocative masculine singular of ab?s?vus

References

• abusive in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press

English

Etymology

From the Latin causticus (“burning”), from the Ancient Greek ????????? (kaustikós, “burning”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: kôs't?k, k?s't?k, IPA^(key): /?k??st?k/, /?k?st?k/
• Rhymes: -??st?k

Adjective

caustic (comparative more caustic, superlative most caustic)

1. Capable of burning, corroding or destroying organic tissue.
2. (of language, etc.) Sharp, bitter, cutting, biting, and sarcastic in a scathing way.
   • 1853, Charlotte Brontë, Villette

     Madame Beck esteemed me learned and blue; Miss Fanshawe, caustic, ironic, and cynical

   • c. 1930, W.H.Auden, "The Quest"

     though he came too late / To join the martyrs, there was still a place / Among the tempters for a caustic tongue / / To test the resolution of the young / With tales of the small failings of the great

Synonyms

• (capable of destroying tissue): acidic, biting, burning, corrosive, searing
• (severe, sharp): bitchy, biting, catty, mordacious, nasty, sarcastic, scathing, sharp, spiteful, vitriolic

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

caustic (plural caustics)

1. Any substance or means which, applied to animal or other organic tissue, burns, corrodes, or destroys it by chemical action; an escharotic.
2. (optics, computer graphics) The envelope of reflected or refracted rays of light for a given surface or object.
3. (mathematics) The envelope of reflected or refracted rays for a given curve.
4. (informal, chemistry) Caustic soda.

Derived terms

• lunar caustic

Translations