pron. [ OE. us, AS. &unr_;s; akin to OFries. & OS. &unr_;s, D. ons, G. uns, Icel. & Sw. oss, Dan. os, Goth. uns, L. nos we, us, Gr. &unr_; we, Skr. nas us. &unr_;&unr_;&unr_;&unr_;. Cf. Nostrum, Our. ] The persons speaking, regarded as an object; ourselves; -- the objective case of we. See We. “Tell us a tale.” Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

Give us this day our daily bread. Matt. vi. 11. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Capable of being used. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. usage, LL. usaticum. See Use. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. The act of using; mode of using or treating; treatment; conduct with respect to a person or a thing; as, good usage; ill usage; hard usage. [ 1913 Webster ]

My brother
Is prisoner to the bishop here, at whose hands
He hath good usage and great liberty. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Manners; conduct; behavior. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

A gentle nymph was found,
Hight Astery, excelling all the crew
In courteous usage. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Long-continued practice; customary mode of procedure; custom; habitual use; method. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

It has now been, during many years, the grave and decorous
usage of Parliaments to hear, in respectful silence, all expressions, acceptable or unacceptable, which are uttered from the throne. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Customary use or employment, as of a word or phrase in a particular sense or signification. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. Experience. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

In eld [ old age ] is both wisdom and usage. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Custom; use; habit. -- Usage, Custom. These words, as here compared, agree in expressing the idea of habitual practice; but a custom is not necessarily a usage. A custom may belong to many, or to a single individual. A usage properly belongs to the great body of a people. Hence, we speak of usage, not of custom, as the law of language. Again, a custom is merely that which has been often repeated, so as to have become, in a good degree, established. A usage must be both often repeated and of long standing. Hence, we speak of a “hew custom, ” but not of a “new usage.” Thus, also, the “customs of society” is not so strong an expression as the “usages of society.” “Custom, a greater power than nature, seldom fails to make them worship.” Locke. “Of things once received and confirmed by use, long usage is a law sufficient.” Hooker. In law, the words usage and custom are often used interchangeably, but the word custom also has a technical and restricted sense. See Custom, n., 3. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. usager. ] One who has the use of anything in trust for another. [ Obs. ] Daniel. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. See Use, v. t. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. Use; usage; employment. [ Obs. ] Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Custom; practice; usage. [ Obs. ] Gower. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Interest paid for money; usury. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Com.) The time, fixed variously by the usage between different countries, when a bill of exchange is payable; as, a bill drawn on London at one usance, or at double usance. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ OF. ] Using; accustomed. [ Obs. ] “Usant for to steal.” Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. pl. (Ethnol.) A Turkish tribe which about the close of the 15th century conquered, and settled in, that part of Asia now called Turkestan. [ Written also Uzbecks, and Uzbeks. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. 1. To be wont 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.” [ 1913 Webster ]

They use to place him that shall be their captain on a stone. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

Fears use to be represented in an imaginary. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

Thus we use to say, it is the room that smokes, when indeed it is the fire in the room. South. [ 1913 Webster ]

Now Moses used to take the tent and to pitch it without the camp. Ex. xxxiii. 7 (Rev. Ver.) [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To be accustomed to go; to frequent; to inhabit; to dwell; -- sometimes followed by of. [ Obs. ] “Where never foot did use.” Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

He useth every day to a merchant's house. B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

Ye valleys low, where the mild whispers use
Of shades, and wanton winds, and gushing brooks. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. us use, usage, L. usus, from uti, p. p. usus, to use. See Use, v. t. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. The act of employing anything, or of applying it to one's 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Books can never teach the use of books. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

This Davy serves you for good uses. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

When he framed
All things to man's delightful use. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Occasion or need to employ; necessity; as, to have no further use for a book. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Yielding of service; advantage derived; capability of being used; usefulness; utility. [ 1913 Webster ]

God made two great lights, great for their use
To man. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

'T is use alone that sanctifies expense. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Continued or repeated practice; customary employment; usage; custom; manner; habit. [ 1913 Webster ]

Let later age that noble use envy. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,
Seem to me all the uses of this world! Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. Common occurrence; ordinary experience. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

O Caesar! these things are beyond all use. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

From henceforth all the whole realm shall have but one use. Pref. to Book of Common Prayer. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. The premium paid for the possession and employment of borrowed money; interest; usury. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Thou art more obliged to pay duty and tribute, use and principal, to him. Jer. Taylor. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Contingent use, 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 use, 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Used p. pr. & vb. n. Using. ] [ OE. usen, F. user to use, use up, wear out, LL. usare to use, from L. uti, p. p. usus, to use, OL. oeti, oesus; of uncertain origin. Cf. Utility. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. To make use of; to convert to one's service; to avail one's 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Launcelot Gobbo, use your legs. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Some other means I have which may be used. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To behave toward; to act with regard to; to treat; as, to use a beast cruelly. “I will use him well.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

How wouldst thou use me now? Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

Cato has used me ill. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To practice customarily; to make a practice of; as, to use diligence in business. [ 1913 Webster ]

Use hospitality one to another. 1 Pet. iv. 9. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

I am so used in the fire to blow. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

Thou with thy compeers,
Used to the yoke, draw'st his triumphant wheels. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

To use one's 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. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

I would, my son, that thou wouldst use the power
Which thy discretion gives thee, to control
And manage all. Cowper. [ 1913 Webster ]

To study nature will thy time employ:
Knowledge and innocence are perfect joy. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]