Preposition: as

• act: Hence rape within marriage is now considered to be as abusive as any other violent act.

Preposition: towards

• member: Maxton was on occasion abusive toward members of the Conservative Party and was several times suspended from the House of Comments for his comments.

Modifies a noun

• e-mails: Please don't send Felix lots of abusive e-mails, he is such a nice gentleman.

• behavior: Domestic abuse is any violent or abusive behavior toward you by a person known to you.

• boyfriend: She steals from him for her abusive boyfriend; she talks of planning to kill him.

• husband: A woman who fatally stabbed her abusive husband had her murder conviction quashed by the court of appeal today.

• registration: Do you have any examples of an Abusive Registration?

• father: Tom Cruise lived in fear of his abusive father.

Modifying Another Word

• verbally: The only time I have heard him swearing or be verbally abusive has been in the presence of his mother.

• racially: Three young children made racially abusive comments to the mother of a Bournemouth shop owner.

• sexually: I consider myself fortunate that my dad wasn't a physical or sexually abusive parent, instead I suppose I suffered abuse through neglect.

• violently: Shelley's violently abusive poems against them strike me as hysterical.

• emotionally: Their problems were exacerbated by their struggle with the benefits system, which she considered emotionally abusive.

• physically: He was never physically abusive to Mom or to me.

Used with adjective complement

• become: At a visit on 18 June 1992 Mr Roberts became abusive.

• consider: Their problems were exacerbated by their struggle with the benefits system, which she considered emotionally abusive.

• get: Enjoy a bit of friendly banter but do not get abusive.

• grow: It's no wonder that the kids grow up abusive, stroppy, slow learners, and disrespectful of authority!

Preposition: in

• way: Being abusive in any way toward fellow players or admins will also result in disciplinary action.

• nature: Be advised, some of the language used is abusive in nature, we have chosen not to sanitize this.