usage

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: us=age

CIDE DICTIONARY

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

•  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."  [1913 Webster]
•  Manners; conduct; behavior.  [1913 Webster]

  "A gentle nymph was found,
  Hight Astery, excelling all the crew
  In courteous usage."  [1913 Webster]
•  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."  [1913 Webster]
•  Customary use or employment, as of a word or phrase in a particular sense or signification.  [1913 Webster]
•  Experience.  [1913 Webster]

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

Syn. -- Custom; use; habit.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

usage, n.
1 a manner of using or treating; treatment (damaged by rough usage).
2 habitual or customary practice, esp. as creating a right, obligation, or standard.

Etymology

ME f. OF f. us USE n.

DEVIL DICTIONARY

usage

n. The First Person of the literary Trinity, the Second and Third being Custom and Conventionality. Imbued with a decent reverence for this Holy Triad an industrious writer may hope to produce books that will live as long as the fashion.

THESAURUS

usage

acceptance, acceptation, acception, active use, adjectival phrase, antonym, appliance, application, articulation, automatism, bad habit, bon ton, care, ceremony, characteristic, choice, choice of words, clause, composition, conformity, construction, consuetude, consumption, convenance, convention, creature of habit, custodianship, custom, dialect, diction, employ, employment, established way, etiquette, exercise, exertion, expression, fashion, folkway, force of habit, form, formality, formulation, free form, good use, grammar, guidance, guiding, habit, habit pattern, habitude, handling, hard usage, hard use, headed group, homograph, homonym, homophone, idiom, idiotism, ill use, language, langue, lead, lexeme, lingo, lingua, linguistic form, locution, logos, management, manipulation, manner, manner of speaking, manners, means of dealing, metonym, minimum free form, misuse, monosyllable, mores, noun phrase, observance, operation, paragraph, parlance, parole, pattern, peculiar expression, peculiarity, period, personal usage, phrasal idiom, phrase, phraseology, phrasing, polysyllable, practice, praxis, preference, prescription, procedure, proceeding, process, proper thing, received meaning, rhetoric, ritual, rough usage, routine, second nature, sentence, set phrase, social convention, speech, standard behavior, standard phrase, standard usage, standing custom, stereotype, stereotyped behavior, stewardship, syllable, synonym, syntactic structure, talk, term, time-honored practice, tongue, tradition, treatment, trick, turn of expression, turn of phrase, use, use of words, using up, usus loquendi, utterance, verb complex, verb phrase, verbalism, verbiage, verbum, vocable, way, way of speaking, what is done, wont, wonting, word, word-group, wordage, wording, wrong use

ROGET THESAURUS

usage

Habit

N habit, habitude, assuetude, assuefaction, wont, run, way, common state of things, general state of things, natural state of things, ordinary state of things, ordinary course of things, ordinary run of things, matter of course, beaten path, beaten track, beaten ground, prescription, custom, use, usage, immemorial usage, practice, prevalence, observance, conventionalism, conventionality, mode, fashion, vogue, etiquette, order of the day, cry, conformity, consuetude, dustoor, one's old way, old school, veteris vestigia flammae, laudator temporis acti, rule, standing order, precedent, routine, red-tape, red-tapism, pipe clay, rut, groove, cacoethes, bad habit, confirmed habit, inveterate habit, intrinsic habit, addiction, trick, training, seasoning, second nature, acclimatization, knack, habitual, accustomary, prescriptive, accustomed, of daily occurrence, of everyday occurrence, consuetudinary, wonted, usual, general, ordinary, common, frequent, everyday, household, garden variety, jog, trot, well-trodden, well-known, familiar, vernacular, trite, commonplace, conventional, regular, set, stock, established, stereotyped, prevailing, prevalent, current, received, acknowledged, recognized, accredited, of course, admitted, understood, conformable, according to use, according to custom, according to routine, in vogue, in fashion, in, with it, fashionable, wont, used to, given to, addicted to, attuned to, habituated, in the habit of, habitue, at home in, seasoned, imbued with, devoted to, wedded to, hackneyed, fixed, rooted, deep-rooted, ingrafted, permanent, inveterate, besetting, naturalized, ingrained, habitually, always, as usual, as is one's wont, as things go, as the world goes, as the sparks fly upwards, more suo, more solito, ex more, as a rule, for the most part, usually, generally, typically, most often, most frequently, cela s'entend, abeunt studia in mores, adeo in teneris consuescere multum est, consuetudo quasi altera natura, hoc erat in more majorum, How use doth breed a habit in a man!, magna est vis consuetudinis, morent fecerat usus.

Use

N use, employ, employment, exercise, exercitation, application, appliance, adhibition, disposal, consumption, agency, usufruct, usefulness, benefit, recourse, resort, avail, utilization, service, wear, usage, in use, used, well-worn, well-trodden, useful, subservient.