use – English noun declension

English noun forms of use

Noun: use
Singularuse
Pluraluses

Sample Sentences

  • The use of torture has been condemned by the United Nations.
  • […]long john underwear, heavy socks, rubber boots, thick flannel shirts, oilskins — it all wore and tore and sprung holes from the hard use of battling storm and bad weather. [1962, Curtis Bok, Maria: a Tale of the Northeast Coast and of the North Atlantic, New York, page 127:]
  • In his submission to the UN, Heyns points to the experience of drones. Unmanned aerial vehicles were intended initially only for surveillance, and their use for offensive purposes was prohibited, yet once strategists realised their perceived advantages as a means of carrying out targeted killings, all objections were swept out of the way. [2013 June 7, Ed Pilkington, “‘Killer robots’ should be banned in advance, UN told”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 6:]
  • Heavy alcohol use (2.5 drinks per day or more) at any age is unhealthy and should be avoided. [2018, Timothy R. Jennings, The Aging Brain, →ISBN, page 93:]
  • Near-synonyms: meaning, meaningfulness
  • What's the use of a law that nobody follows?
  • There's no use in spewing a million words about it; whatever will be, will be.
  • God made two great lights, great for their use / To man. [1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:]
  • 'Tis use alone that sanctifies expense. [1731, Alexander Pope, “Epistle IV: Of the Use of Riches”, in Moral Essays; republished in The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Boston, New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1902, page 173:]
  • This tool has many uses.
  • The use of algorithms in policing is one example of their increasing influence on our lives. And, as their ubiquity spreads, so too does the debate around whether we should allow ourselves to become so reliant on them – and who, if anyone, is policing their use. [2013 July 26, Leo Hickman, “How algorithms rule the world”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 7, page 26:]
  • I have no further use for these textbooks.
  • DON PEDRO. Come, lady, come; you have lost the heart of Signior Benedick.
  • BEATRICE. Indeed, my lord, he lent it me awhile; and I gave him use for it, a double heart for a single one: [...] [1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:]
  • Thou art more obliged to pay duty and tribute, use and principal, to him. [1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Francis Ashe […], →OCLC:]
  • Let later age that noble vse enuie, [1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 13:]
  • How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable, / Seem to me all the uses of this world! [c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:]
  • For the next yeere 1527. the negotiations of a Councell were buried in silence; according to the vse of humane affaires, that in the time of warre, prouision for lawes hath no place. [1629 [1619], Paolo Sarpi, translated by Nathaniel Brent, The Historie of the Councel of Trent […], London: Bonham Norton and John Bill, →OCLC, book 1, paragraph 96, page 43:]
  • O Caesar! these things are beyond all use. [1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:]
  • the Sarum, or Canterbury, use; the York use; the Ordinariate use
  • From henceforth all the whole realm shall have but one use. [1549 March 7, Thomas Cranmer [et al.], compilers, The Booke of the Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacramentes, […], London: […] Edowardi Whitchurche […], →OCLC:]

Etymology

1. Etymology tree
2. Proto-Italic *oissos
3. Latin ūsus
4. Old French usbor.
5. Middle English use
6. English use
7. Inherited from Middle English use, from Old French us, from Latin ūsus (“use, custom, skill, habit”), from past participle stem of ūtor (“use”). Displaced native Middle English note (“use”) (see note) from Old English notu; Middle English nutte (“use”) from Old English nytt; as well as Old English fricu and Old English sidu. See: Middle English Nouns 'use', Middle English Nouns 'use', Latin Nouns 'ūsus', Middle English Nouns 'note', Old English Nouns 'notu', Middle English Nouns 'nutte', Old English Nouns 'nytt', Old English Nouns 'fricu', Old English Nouns 'sidu'.