Usage

Usage
Usage Us"age, 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: {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]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.

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  • usagé — usagé …   Dictionnaire des rimes

  • usage — [ yzaʒ ] n. m. • XIIe; du lat. usus → us I ♦ 1 ♦ (1190) Le fait d appliquer, de faire agir (un objet, une matière), pour obtenir un effet, que cet objet, cette matière subsiste (⇒ utilisation), disparaisse (⇒ consommation) ou se modifie e …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • usagé — usage [ yzaʒ ] n. m. • XIIe; du lat. usus → us I ♦ 1 ♦ (1190) Le fait d appliquer, de faire agir (un objet, une matière), pour obtenir un effet, que cet objet, cette matière subsiste (⇒ utilisation), disparaisse (⇒ …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • usage — Usage. s. m. Coustume, pratique receuë. Long, constant, perpetuel, ancien usage. c estoit l usage du pays, du temps. cela est receu par l usage. c est l usage. l usage le veut ainsi. l usage est le maistre des langues vivantes. ce mot n est pas… …   Dictionnaire de l'Académie française

  • usage — Usage, m. penac. C est ce que le Latin dit Vsus, dont il descend. Usage aussi se prent pour coustume, et selon ce on trouve souvent au coustumier de France ces deux mots Usage, et coustume pour une mesme chose, d autant que coustume n est autre… …   Thresor de la langue françoyse

  • usage — us·age / yü sij, zij/ n: an habitual or uniform practice esp. in an area or trade compare custom Merriam Webster’s Dictionary of Law. Merriam Webster. 1996. us …   Law dictionary

  • usage — UK US /ˈjuːsɪdʒ/ noun [U] ► the process of using something: »The software allows marketers to track the usage patterns of each customer. ► the amount of something used, such as energy, internet time, etc.: »The plan offers unlimited internet… …   Financial and business terms

  • usagé — usagé, ée (u za jé, jée) adj. Terme familier. Qui a de l usage. Les femmes les moins usagées. HISTORIQUE    XVe s. •   Usagés es faits d armes, FROISS. II, II, 184. SUPPLÉMENT AU DICTIONNAIRE    USAGÉ. Ajoutez :2° Qui a servi, qui a fait de l… …   Dictionnaire de la Langue Française d'Émile Littré

  • usage — (n.) c.1300, established practice, custom, from Anglo Fr. and O.Fr. usage custom, habit, experience, from us, from L. usus use, custom (see USE (Cf. use)) …   Etymology dictionary

  • Usage — (fr., spr. Üsahsch), Brauch, Gebrauch, Herkommen, Gewohnheit; daher U. du monde, Weltsitte, Weltton …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

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