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malmener

to manhandle

verb mahl-muh-NEH Rare

Also means

to mistreat

Usage Note

Malmener combines mal (badly) and mener (to lead/handle), meaning to treat someone or something roughly or harshly. It can describe physical rough treatment (malmener un suspect) or figurative abuse (malmener la langue française — 'to mangle the French language'). It follows the same conjugation pattern as mener, with stem changes in certain forms.

Examples

"L'équipe adverse a malmené nos joueurs."

Natural Translation

The opposing team manhandled our players.

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