*usage*

n. Gradual cessation of use or custom; neglect of use; disuse. [ R. ] Hooker. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Espousal. [ Obs. ] Latimer. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ From House. ] A fee for keeping goods in a house. [ R. ] Chambers. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. cruel or inhumane treatment.
Syn. -- maltreatment, ill-treatment, abuse. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ Cf. F. mésusage. ] Bad treatment; abuse. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. saucisse, LL. salcitia, salsicia, fr. salsa. See Sauce. ] 1. An article of food consisting of meat (esp. pork) minced and highly seasoned, and inclosed in a cylindrical case or skin usually made of the prepared intestine of some animal. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A saucisson. See Saucisson. Wilhelm. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OF. espousaige, from espouser. See Spouse, v. t. ] Espousal. [ Obs. ] Bale. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Surplusage. [ Obs. ] “There yet remained a superplusage.” Bp. Fell. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ See Surplus, and cf. Superplusage. ] 1. Surplus; excess; overplus; as, surplusage of grain or goods beyond what is wanted. [ 1913 Webster ]

Take what thou please of all this surplusage. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

A surplusage given to one part is paid out of a reduction from another part of the same creature. Emerson. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Law) Matter in pleading which is not necessary or relevant to the case, and which may be rejected. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Accounts) A greater disbursement than the charge of the accountant amounts to. [ Obs. ] Rees. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Want or lack of usage. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

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, 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 ]