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overuse

Other forms: overused; overusing; overuses

To overuse something is to use it too much. If you use your cell phone way too often, texting your friends all day long and playing online Scrabble all night, you overuse it.

You'll drive your English teacher crazy if you overuse the word like, and you'll rack up all kinds of extra fees if you overuse your iPad. Overuse is also a noun (with a slightly different pronunciation, just as the noun use sounds different from the verb use) — extravagant or excessive use is overuse. The world's overuse of fossil fuels contributes to the rapid warming of the planet.

Definitions of overuse
  1. verb
    make use of too often or too extensively
    synonyms: overdrive
    see moresee less
    type of:
    apply, employ, use, utilise, utilize
    put into service; make work or employ for a particular purpose or for its inherent or natural purpose
Definitions of overuse
  1. noun
    exploitation to the point of diminishing returns
    see moresee less
    type of:
    development, exploitation
    the act of making some area of land or water more profitable or productive or useful
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