Căt'a-chrē'sis, n.

n. [Lat. catachresis, Gr. κατάχρησις, misuse, from καταχρῆσθαι, to misuse, from κατά, against, entirely, strengthening the sense of the simple word, and χρῆσθαι, to use.] (Rhet.) An abuse of a trope, or of words; a figure by which one word is wrongly put for another, or by which a word is too far wrested from its true signification; a harsh or far-fetched metaphor; as, “Her voice was but the shadow of a sound.” Young.