I can't believe I have yet to destroy a multimeter after all these years...
The only ways I've "abused" a meter was having the cheap probes break. Once I had one (small analog) meter I left the probes plugged in and threw into a backpack with other stuff in it, and cracked the probes. Once the probe got overstretched and broke the wire inside of the insulation. And many times the wires broke at the probe, needing it to be resoldered or something.
But I have yet to fry a meter electrically...
One of my meters, the old Eico 555, the Rx1 resistor was burned out when I salvaged it, which is typical of trying to measure voltage in the resistance range I find. I'm glad I've yet to destroy one this way...
So how have you killed your multimeters?