(v. t.) 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.
(v. t.) Occasion or need to employ; necessity; as, to have no
further use for a book.
(v. t.) Yielding of service; advantage derived; capability of being
used; usefulness; utility.
(v. t.) Continued or repeated practice; customary employment;
usage; custom; manner; habit.
(v. t.) Common occurrence; ordinary experience.
(v. t.) 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.
(v. t.) The premium paid for the possession and employment of
borrowed money; interest; usury.
(v. t.) 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.
(v. t.) 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.
(v. t.) 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.
(v. t.) To behave toward; to act with regard to; to treat; as, to
use a beast cruelly.
(v. t.) To practice customarily; to make a practice of; as, to use
diligence in business.
(v. t.) 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.
(v. i.) 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."
(v. i.) To be accustomed to go; to frequent; to inhabit; to dwell;
-- sometimes followed by of.
