滥用
lànyòng · HSK 7
abuse
🚿💸 滥 (excessive, overflowing) + 用 (use) = use to excess = abuse, misuse
滥 carries the sense of water overflowing its banks, hence excessive or unrestrained. Pair it with 用 (use) and you get using something past all limits: misuse or abuse, as in 滥用职权 (abuse of power).
用 — pictograph of a bucket or wooden pail
用 originally depicted a bucket or container, possibly a sacrificial vessel made of wood. Over time it was borrowed to mean 'to use' or 'employ,' losing its concrete object sense. The modern meaning 'use' has been standard since early classical Chinese.