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v.t.1. to employ for some purpose; put into service; make use of: to use a knife.2. to avail oneself of; apply to one's own purposes: to use the facilities.3. to expend or consume in use: We have used the money provided.4. to treat or behave toward: He did not use his employees with much consideration.5. to take unfair advantage of; exploit: to use people to gain one's own ends.6. to drink, smoke, or ingest habitually: to use drugs.7. to habituate or accustom.8. Archaic. to practice habitually or customarily; make a practice of.v.i.9. to be accustomed, wont, or customarily found (used with an infinitive expressed or understood, and, except in archaic use, now only in the past): He used to go every day.10. Archaic. to resort, stay, or dwell customarily.11. use up,a. to consume entirely.b. to exhaust of vigor or usefulness; finish: By the end of the war he felt used up and sick of life.n.12. the act of employing, using, or putting into service: the use of tools.13. the state of being employed or used.14. an instance or way of employing or using something: proper use of the tool; the painter's use of color.15. a way of being employed or used; a purpose for which something is used: He was of temporary use. The instrument has different uses.16. the power, right, or privilege of employing or using something: to lose the use of the right eye; to be denied the use of a library card.17. service or advantage in or for being employed or used; utility or usefulness: of no practical use.18. help; profit; resulting good: What's the use of pursuing the matter?19. occasion or need, as for something to be employed or used: Would you have any use for another calendar?20. continued, habitual, or customary employment or practice; custom: to follow the prevailing use of such occasions.21. Law.a. the enjoyment of property, as by the employment, occupation, or exercise of it.b. the benefit or profit of lands and tenements in the possession of another who simply holds them for the beneficiary.c. the equitable ownership of land to which the legal title is in another's name.22. Liturgy. the distinctive form of ritual or of any liturgical observance used in a particular church, diocese, community, etc.23. usual or customary experience.24. have no use for,a. to have no occasion or need for: She appears to have no use for the city.b. to refuse to tolerate; discount: He had no use for his brother.c. to have a distaste for; dislike: He has no use for dictators.25. make use of, to use for one's own purposes; employ: Charitable organizations will make use of your old furniture and clothing.26. of no use, of no advantage or help: It's of no use to look for that missing earring. It's no use asking her to go. Also, no use.27. put to use, to apply; employ to advantage: What a shame that no one has put that old deserted mansion to use![1175-1225; (v.) ME usen < OF user < L usus, ptp. of uti to use; (n.) ME < OF < L usus act of using a thing, application, employment, equiv. to ut-, s. of uti to use + -tus suffix of v. action, with tt > s]Syn. 1. USE, UTILIZE mean to make something serve one's purpose. USE is the general word: to use a telephone; to use a saw and other tools; to use one's eyes; to use eggs in cooking. (What is USED often has depreciated or been diminished, sometimes completely consumed: a used automobile; All the butter has been used.) As applied to persons, USE implies some selfish or sinister purpose: to use another to advance oneself. UTILIZE implies practical or profitable use: to utilize the means at hand, a modern system of lighting. 3. exhaust, waste. 7. familiarize, inure. 13. employment, utilization, application, exercise. 14. handling.
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in medieval English property law, the right of one person to take the profits of land belonging to another. It involved at least two and usually three persons. One man (A) would convey or enfeoff land to another (B) on the condition that the latter would use it not for his own benefit but for the benefit of a third man (C)—who could be A himself. C (or A), thus, had the profits—that is, the use—of the land and could treat the land as he pleased. This legal institution, which arose as early as the 11th century, came to be employed not only as a legitimate method of providing for property management and for conveyancing but also as a method of defrauding creditors, depriving feudal landlords of their dues, and permitting religious institutions to derive the benefit of land that they could not own directly.Originally, carrying out the use depended on the conscience of the person entrusted with the property, because there was no writ by which the common-law courts could enforce it. Toward the end of the 14th century, however, the equity courts began to issue decrees for its enforcement. Whereas common-law courts had considered B to be the full owner, equity courts viewed him as merely the nominal owner and considered C the true, or “equitable,” owner and rendered judgments on that basis.By 1535 the use had become so objectionable because of its frequent employment for improper and illegal objects—particularly for avoiding dues or taxes—that Parliament enacted the Statute of Uses, which abolished many forms of the use. The uses that survived were called trusts, and they constitute the foundation on which the modern law of trusts exists.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
