missbrauchte

Missbrauchte is a verb form in German, specifically the simple past (Präteritum) tense of missbrauchen. The verb means to misuse or to abuse something, and missbrauchen is used when someone misuses power, resources, information, or trust. The simple past tense forms include ich missbrauchte and er/sie/es missbrauchte. The past participle, used for the perfect and passive constructions, is missbraucht.

Grammatically, missbrauchen belongs to the weak verb class in German conjugation. In present tense, the forms are ich missbrauche, du missbrauchst, er missbraucht, wir missbrauchen, ihr missbraucht, sie missbrauchen. The Präteritum form missbrauchte can be used in narrative past statements: Ich missbrauchte das Vertrauen, Er missbrauchte seine Macht. The passive voice is formed with werden plus the past participle: Das Vertrauen wurde missbraucht.

Usage and context: Missbrauchte is used to describe actions of wrongdoing where something is used inappropriately or harmfully. It often appears in political, legal, or ethical discussions (for example, missbrauchte Macht, missbrauchte Daten). The noun form Missbrauch denotes the concept of abuse or misuse; compound nouns like Datenmissbrauch (data misuse) are common in modern German.

Related terms include Missbrauch, the noun for abuse or misuse; Missbrauchsfall, a case of abuse; and Datenmissbrauch, data abuse. While missbrauchte is a verb form, the language frequently relies on noun phrases to name abuses, such as Missbrauch von Macht or Missbrauch von Daten, depending on the context.