usage
NounOpen English WordNet
Noun (3)
- the act of using“he warned against the use of narcotic drugs”“skilled in the utilization of computers”Synonyms: useutilizationutilisationemploymentexerciseType of activityKinds application, exploitation, practice, play, misuse, recycling
- accepted or habitual practiceSynonyms: customusanceType of practice, survivalKinds ritual, habit, Americanism, couvade, Germanism, consuetude, hijab, Anglicism
- the customary manner in which a language (or a form of a language) is spoken or written“English usage”“a usage borrowed from French”Type of language, linguistic communication
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Translations
Noun act of using something
Noun habit or accepted practice
The main translation for each meaning, from the langtolang.com multilingual dictionary. Each word links to its full entry there.
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Origin: F. usage, LL. usaticum. See Use.
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.
My brother Is prisoner to the bishop here, at whose hands He hath good usage and great liberty.— William Shakespeare
2. Manners; conduct; behavior. obsolete
A gentle nymph was found, Hight Astery, excelling all the crew In courteous usage.— Edmund Spenser
3. Long-continued practice; customary mode of procedure; custom; habitual use; method. Geoffrey Chaucer
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.— Thomas Babington Macaulay
4. Customary use or employment, as of a word or phrase in a particular sense or signification.
5. Experience. obsolete
In eld [old age] is both wisdom and usage.— Geoffrey Chaucer
Synonyms: 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.” John Locke “Of things once received and confirmed by use, long usage is a law sufficient.” Richard 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, noun, 3.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54