maltreat

• Many of them followed the occupation of gold-washers in the Carpathians, and part if not all the product of their labour fell to the portion of the wives of the Voivodes; indeed, according to some writers, a considerable number were slaves, whom the princess or her officials did not hesitate to sell, maltreat, or even put to death with impunity Illustration: GIPSY MUSICIANS Wilkinson has given us anything but a flattering description of them in his day (1820). —  Roumania Past and Present
• At last, pinched, shrivelled, and consumed, they will get down on their beds to die, and at the step of the doctor in the hall, or the shutting of the front door, they will start up, thinking they hear the sepulchral gates creak open Who is this God that you should maltreat his name? —  The Abominations of Modern Society
• But pert as the superlatively pert may think me, I thought not myself wiser, because I was older; nor for that poor reason qualified to prescribe to, much less to maltreat, a genius so superior I repeat it with gratitude, that the dear creature's advice was of very great service to me--and this before my mother's watchfulness became necessary. —  Clarissa Harlowe; or the history of a young lady — Volume 7
• Whoever shall maltreat or assault another, while the articles subsist, shall receive the Law of Moses: this was the infliction of forty consecutive strokes upon the back, a whimsical memento of the dispensation in the Wilderness. —  The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, No. 59, September, 1862
• Often finding no spoil, they maltreat or murder their victims. —  Masters of the Guild

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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