Definition of: use

(yz) v. used, us·ing v.t.
1. To employ for the accomplishment of a purpose; make use of.
2. To put into practice or employ habitually; make a practice of: to use diligence in business.
3. To expend the whole of; consume: often with up.
4. To conduct oneself toward; treat: to use one badly.
5. To make familiar by habit or practice; accustom; inure: usually in the past participle: He is used to exposure.
6. To partake of; smoke or chew: He does not use tobacco.
—v.i.
7. To do something customarily or habitually; be accustomed or wont: now only in the past tense as an auxiliary to form a phrase equivalent to a frequentative past tense: I used to go there. See synonyms under EMPLOY, OCCUPY.
—noun (ys)
1. The act of using; application or employment to an end, particularly a good or useful end; the fact or condition of being employed.
2. Suitableness or adaptability to an end; serviceableness: the uses of adversity.
3. Way or manner of using.
4. Occasion or need to employ; necessity: I have no use for it; purpose; function.
5. Habitual practice or employment; the fact of being habitually used; custom; usage.
6. Any special form, ceremony, or ritual of public worship, or any individual service that arose in or was perpetuated by a church, diocese, or branch of a church: Sarum use, Roman use, York use. Compare LITURGY.
7. Law The permanent equitable right that a beneficiary has to the enjoyment of the rents and profits of lands and tenements of which the legal title and possession are vested in another in trust for the beneficiary.
8. Obs. Ordinary experience or occurrence.
9. Usury. See synonyms under CUSTOM, HABIT, OCCUPATION, SERVICE, UTILITY. [<OF user <L usus, pp. of uti use]