'Usage' definitions:

Definition of 'usage'

From: WordNet
noun
The act of using; "he warned against the use of narcotic drugs"; "skilled in the utilization of computers" [syn: use, usage, utilization, utilisation, employment, exercise]
noun
Accepted or habitual practice [syn: custom, usage, usance]
noun
The customary manner in which a language (or a form of a language) is spoken or written; "English usage"; "a usage borrowed from French"

Definition of 'Usage'

From: GCIDE
  • Usage \Us"age\, n. [F. usage, LL. usaticum. See Use.] [1913 Webster]
  • 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. [1913 Webster]
  • My brother Is prisoner to the bishop here, at whose hands He hath good usage and great liberty. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. Manners; conduct; behavior. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
  • A gentle nymph was found, Hight Astery, excelling all the crew In courteous usage. --Spenser. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. 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. --Macaulay. [1913 Webster]
  • 4. Customary use or employment, as of a word or phrase in a particular sense or signification. [1913 Webster]
  • 5. Experience. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
  • In eld [old age] is both wisdom and usage. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster]
  • Syn: Custom; use; habit.
  • Usage: 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." --Locke. "Of things once received and confirmed by use, long usage is a law sufficient." --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, n., 3. [1913 Webster] [1913 Webster]

Synonyms of 'usage'

From: Moby Thesaurus

Words containing 'Usage'