usage

Noun

usage (countable and uncountable, plural usages)

1. A custom or established practice.
   • [S]everal young people sung sacred music in the churchyard at night, which it seems is an usage here.1792, James Boswell, in Danziger & Brady (eds.), Boswell: The Great Biographer (Journals 1789–1795), Yale 1989, p. 170
   • Mrs. Wickam, agreeably to the usage of some ladies in her condition, pursued […] the subject, without any compunction.1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC
2. (uncountable) Custom, tradition.
3. The act of using something; use, employment.
   • Demand continues to increase, and in 2023-24 recorded usage was higher than pre-COVID, with 384,000 passenger journeys in total (of which 247,000 were at the town location). At the other end of the branch, Truro station had usage of 1.19 million, of which 255,000 were recorded as interchange...2025 February 19, 'Industry Insider', “South West boost”, in RAIL, number 1029, page 68, about the Falmouth branch
4. Prevailing language style: how words are used among a populace.
   • In descriptive fact, word senses are established by usage.
   • The years roll by as they always do, and more examples of pIqaD usage for Klingon have been coming to light. Does this still not count as usage?2016, Mark Shoulson, “pIqaD (Klingon) and its Usage”, in Unicode, archived from the original on 24 Aug 2021, page 1
5. Choice of language style (made by a speaker or writer).
   • usage prescriptions
   • In prescriptive ideal, writers will optimize their usage.
6. (archaic) Action towards someone; treatment, especially in negative sense.
   • Whose sharp provokement them incenst so sore, / That both were bent t'avenge his usage base […]1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
   • Satisfy a child by a constant course of your care and kindness, that you perfectly love him, and he may by degrees be accustom'd to bear very painful and rough usage from you, without flinching or complaining1693, [John Locke], “§115”, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education, London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], →OCLC