Use
use (?), n. (OE. us use, usage, L.usus, from uti, p. p. usus, to use. See Use,
v. t.)
1. The act of employing anything, or of applying it
to ones service; the state of being so employed or applied; application;
employment; conversion to some purpose; as, the use of a pen in
writing; his machines are in general use.
Books can never teach the use of books.
Bacon.
This Davy serves you for good uses.
Shak.
When he framed
All things to mans delightful use. Milton.
2. Occasion or need to employ; necessity; as, to
have no further use for a book. Shak.
3. Yielding of service; advantage derived;
capability of being used; usefulness; utility.
God made two great lights, great for their use
To man. Milton.
T is use alone that sanctifies expense.
Pope.
4. Continued or repeated practice; customary
employment; usage; custom; manner; habit.
Let later age that noble use envy.
Spenser.
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,
Seem to me all the uses of this world! Shak.
5. Common occurrence; ordinary experience.
(R.)
O Casar! these things are beyond all
use. Shak.
6. (Eccl.) The special form of ritual
adopted for use in any diocese; as, the Sarum, or Canterbury, use;
the Hereford use; the York use; the Roman use;
etc.
From henceforth all the whole realm shall have but one
use. Pref. to Book of Common Prayer.
7. The premium paid for the possession and
employment of borrowed money; interest; usury. (Obs.)
Thou art more obliged to pay duty and tribute, use
and principal, to him. Jer. Taylor.
8. (In this sense probably a corruption of OF.
oes, fr. L. opus need, business, employment, work. Cf.
Operate.) (Law) The benefit or profit of lands and
tenements. Use imports a trust and confidence reposed in a man for
the holding of lands. He to whose use or benefit the trust is
intended shall enjoy the profits. An estate is granted and limited to A for
the use of B.
9. (Forging) A stab of iron welded to the
side of a forging, as a shaft, near the end, and afterward drawn down, by
hammering, so as to lengthen the forging.
Contingent, or Springing,
use (Law), a use to come into operation on a
future uncertain event. -- In use.
(a) In employment; in customary practice
observance. (b) In heat; -- said especially of
mares. J. H. Walsh. -- Of no use,
useless; of no advantage. -- Of use, useful;
of advantage; profitable. -- Out of use, not in
employment. -- Resulting use (Law), a
use, which, being limited by the deed, expires or can not vest, and results
or returns to him who raised it, after such expiration. --
Secondary, or Shifting,
use, a use which, though executed, may change from
one to another by circumstances. Blackstone. -- Statute
of uses (Eng. Law), the stat. 27 Henry VIII., cap. 10,
which transfers uses into possession, or which unites the use and
possession. -- To make use of, To put to
use, to employ; to derive service from; to use.
use (?), v. t. (imp. p. pr. of uncertain origin. Cf. Utility.)
1. To make use of; to convert to ones service; to
avail ones self of; to employ; to put a purpose; as, to use a plow;
to use a chair; to use time; to use flour for food; to
use water for irrigation.
Launcelot Gobbo, use your legs.
Shak.
Some other means I have which may be
used. Milton.
2. To behave toward; to act with regard to; to
treat; as, to use a beast cruelly. I will use him
well. Shak.
How wouldst thou use me now?
Milton.
Cato has used me ill.
Addison.
3. To practice customarily; to make a practice of;
as, to use diligence in business.
Use hospitality one to another. 1
Pet. iv. 9.
4. To accustom; to habituate; to render familiar by
practice; to inure; -- employed chiefly in the passive participle; as, men
used to cold and hunger; soldiers used to hardships and
danger.
I am so used in the fire to blow.
Chaucer.
Thou with thy compeers,
Used to the yoke, drawst his triumphant wheels.
Milton.
To use ones self, to behave. (Obs.) Pray,
forgive me, if I have used myself unmannerly. Shak. --
To use up. (a) To consume or exhaust
by using; to leave nothing of; as, to use up the supplies.
(b) To exhaust; to tire out; to leave no capacity of
force or use in; to overthrow; as, he was used up by fatigue.
(Colloq.)
Syn. -- Employ. -- Use, Employ. We use a
thing, or make use of it, when we derive from it some enjoyment or
service. We employ it when we turn that service into a particular
channel. We use words to express our general meaning; we
employ certain technical terms in reference to a given subject. To
make use of, implies passivity in the thing; as, to make use
of a pen; and hence there is often a material difference between the
two words when applied to persons. To speak of making use of
another generally implies a degrading idea, as if we had used him
as a tool; while employ has no such sense. A confidential friend is
employed to negotiate; an inferior agent is made use of on an
intrigue.
I would, my son, that thou wouldst use the power
Which thy discretion gives thee, to control
And manage all. Cowper.
To study nature will thy time employ:
Knowledge and innocence are perfect joy. Dryden.
use (?), v. i. 1. To bewont or accustomed; to be in the habit or practice; as, he used to
ride daily; -- now disused in the present tense, perhaps because of the
similarity in sound, between use to, and used
to.
They use to place him that shall be their captain on
a stone. Spenser.
Fears use to be represented in an
imaginary. Bacon.
Thus we use to say, it is the room that smokes, when
indeed it is the fire in the room. South.
Now Moses used to take the tent and to pitch it
without the camp. Ex. xxxiii. 7 (Rev. Ver.)
2. To be accustomed to go; to frequent; to inhabit;
to dwell; -- sometimes followed by of. (Obs.) Where never
foot did use. Spenser.
He useth every day to a merchants
house. B. Jonson.
Ye valleys low, where the mild whispers use
Of shades, and wanton winds, and gushing brooks.
Milton.
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