Word: use Part of Speech: verb Etymology: Etymology tree Latin ūtī Early Medieval Latin ūsō Early Medieval Latin ūsāre Old French userbor. Middle English usen English use Inherited from Middle English usen, from Old French user (“use, employ, practice”), from Medieval Latin usare (“use”), frequentative form of past participle stem of Latin uti (“to use”). Displaced native Middle English noten, nutten (“to use”) (from Old English notian, nēotan, nyttian) and Middle English brouken, bruken (“to use, enjoy”) (from Old English brūcan). Pronunciation: /juːz/, /juz/, [jɪu̯z], /(j)ɪu̯z/, /jʉːz/ 1. To utilize or employ. Labels: transitive Example: Use this knife to slice the bread. Example: We can use this mathematical formula to solve the problem. 2. To utilize or employ. Labels: often, transitive, with-up Example: I used the money they allotted me. Example: We should use up most of the fuel. 3. To utilize or employ. Labels: transitive Example: You never cared about me; you just used me! Example: Oxygen levels on Earth skyrocketed 2.4 billion years ago, when cyanobacteria evolved photosynthesis: the ability to convert water and carbon dioxide into carbohydrates and waste oxygen using solar energy. 4. To utilize or employ. Labels: transitive Example: He uses cocaine. Example: I have never used drugs. 5. To utilize or employ. Labels: intransitive Example: Richard began experimenting with cocaine last year; now he uses almost every day. 6. To utilize or employ. Labels: transitive Example: I could use a drink. Example: My car could use a new coat of paint. 7. To utilize or employ. Labels: transitive Example: I use they/them pronouns. Example: The "Older" [butch] group is maintained by three administrators who all use she/her pronouns and two moderators, one of whom uses they'them pronouns while the other uses she/her. 8. To accustom; to habituate. (Now common only in participial form. Uses the same pronunciation as the noun; see usage notes.) Example: soldiers who are used to hardships and danger Example: to use the soldiers to hardships and danger 9. To accustom; to habituate. (Now common only in participial form. Uses the same pronunciation as the noun; see usage notes.) Labels: obsolete, reflexive Example: It is not without some difficulty, that a man born in society can form an idea of such savages, and their condition; and unless he has used himself to abstract thinking, he can hardly represent to himself such a state of simplicity, in which man can have so few desires, and no appetites roving beyond the immediate call of untaught nature […] Example: 1742, Samuel Richardson, Pamela, London: S. Richardson, 4th edition, Volume 3, Letter 12, p. 53, So that reading constantly, and thus using yourself to write, and enjoying besides the Benefit of a good Memory, every thing you heard or read, became your own […] 10. To habitually do; to be wont to do. (Now chiefly in past-tense forms; see used to.) Labels: intransitive Example: I used to get things done. Example: Peter Pol, doctor in divinitie used to sit upon his mule, who as Monstrelet reporteth, was wont to ride up and downe the streets of Paris, ever sitting sideling, as women use. 11. To behave toward; to act with regard to; to treat. Labels: dated Example: to use an animal cruelly Example: See who it is: and, now the battle’s ended, If friend or foe, let him be gently used. 12. To behave, act, comport oneself. Labels: obsolete, reflexive Example: 1551, Thomas More, Utopia, London: B. Alsop & T. Fawcet, 1639, “Of Bond-men, Sicke persons, Wedlocke, and divers other matters,” page 231, They live together lovingly: For no Magistrate is either haughty or fearefull. Fathers they be called, and like fathers they use themselves. Example: c. 1558, George Cavendish, The Life and Death of Thomas Wolsey, cardinal, edited by Grace H. M. Simpson, London: R. & T. Washbourne, 1901, page 57, I pray to God that this may be a sufficient admonition unto thee to use thyself more wisely hereafter, for assure thyself that if thou dost not amend thy prodigality, thou wilt be the last Earl of our house.