Emily Dickinson Lexicon

U'SANCE, n. [s as z. Fr.]

1. Use; proper employment. Spenser.
2. Usury; interest paid for money. Shak.
3. In commerce, a determinate time fixed for the payment of bills of exchange, reckoned either from the day of their date, or the day of their acceptance. It is thus called because this time is settled by usage, or the custom of places on which the bills are drawn. In France, the usance for bills drawn from Spain and Portugal, is sixty days. At London, the usance for bills drawn from Holland, Germany or France, is one month. The usance is very different in different countries and cities. Cyc.

USE, n. [L. usus; It. uso; Fr. us, plur.]

1. The act of handling or employing in any manner, and for any purpose, but especially for a profitable purpose; as, the use of a pen in writing; the use of books in study; the use of a spade in digging. Use is of two kinds; that which employs a thing without destroying it or its form, as the use of a book or of a farm; or it is the employment of a thing which destroys or wastes it, as the use of bread for provision; the use of water for turning a mill.
2. Employment; application of any thing to a purpose, good or bad. It is our duty to make a faithful use of our opportunities and advantages for improvement. Books can never teach the use of books. Bacon.
3. Usefulness; utility; advantage; production of benefit. The value of a thing is to be estimated by its use. His friendship has been of use to me. 'Tis use alone that sanctifies expense. Pope.
4. Need of employment, or occasion to employ. I have no further use for this book.
5. Power of receiving advantage. [Unusual.] Dryden.
6. Continued practice or employment. Sweetness, truth, and every grace, Which time and use are wont to teach. Waller.
7. Custom; common occurrence. O Cesar, these things are beyond all use. [Unusual.] Shak.
8. Interest; the premium paid for the possession and employment of borrowed money. South.
9. In law, the benefit or profit of lands and tenements. Use imports a trust and confidence reposed in a man for the holding of lands. He to whose use or benefit the trust is intended, shall enjoy the profits. An estate is granted and limited to A. for the use of B. Statute of Uses, in England, the Stat. 27 Henry VIII. cap. 10, which transfers uses into possession, or which unites the use and possession. Cestuy que use, in law, the person who has the use of lands and tenements. Contingent use, in law. A contingent or springing use, is where the use is suspended on a future event. Resulting use, is one which, being limited by the deed, expires or can not vest, and results or returns to him who raised it, after such expiration. Secondary or shifting use, is that which though executed, may change from one to another by circumstances. Blackstone. In use, in employment; as, the book is now in use. #2. In customary practice or observance. Such words, rites and ceremonies, have long been in use.

USE, v.i. [s as z.]

1. To be accustomed; to practice customarily. They use to place him that shall be their captain on a stone. Spenser.
2. To be wont. Fears used to be represented in an imaginary fashion. Bacon.
3. To frequent; to inhabit. Where never foot did use. Spenser.

USE, v.t. [s as z. Fr. user; It. usare; Sp. usar; L. utor, usus; Gr. εθω.]

1. To employ; to handle, hold, occupy or move for some purpose; as, to use a plow; to use a chair; to use a book; to use time. Most men use the right hand with more convenience than the left, and hence its name, right.
2. To waste, consume or exhaust by employment; as, to use flour for food; to use beer for drink; to use water for irrigation, or for turning the wheel of a mill.
3. To accustom; to habituate; to render familiar by practice; as, men used to cold and hunger; soldiers used to hardships and danger. Addison. Swift.
4. To treat; as, to use one well or ill; to use people with kindness and civility; to use a beast with cruelty. Cato has us'd me ill. Addison.
5. To practice customarily. Use hospitality one to another. 1 Pet. iv. To use one's self, to behave. [Obs.] Shak.

US-ED, pp. [s as z.]

Employed; occupied; treated.

USE-FUL, a.

Producing or having power to produce good; beneficial; profitable; helpful toward advancing any purpose; as, vessels and instruments useful in a family; books useful for improvement; useful knowledge; useful arts.

USE-FUL-LY, adv.

In such a manner as to produce or advance some end; as, instruments or time usefully employed,

USE-FUL-NESS, n.

Conduciveness to some end, properly to some valuable end; as, the usefulness of canal navigation; the usefulness of machinery in manufactures.

USE-LESS, a.

Having no use; unserviceable; producing no good end; answering no valuable purpose; not advancing the end proposed; as, a useless garment; useless pity. Gay.

USE-LESS-LY, adv.

In a useless manner; without profit or advantage. Locke.

USE-LESS-NESS, n.

Unserviceableness; unfitness for any valuable purpose, or for the purpose intended; as, the uselessness of pleasure.

US-ER, n. [s as z.]

One who uses, treats or occupies.

USH'ER, n. [Fr. huissier, a door-keeper, from huis, It. uscio, a door.]

1. Properly, an officer or servant who has the care of the door of a court, hall, chamber or the like; hence, an officer whose business is to introduce strangers, or to walk before a person of rank. In the king's household there are four gentlemen-ushers of the privy chamber. There is also an usher of the exchequer, who attends the barons, sherifs, juries, &c. Cyc. England.
2. An under-teacher or assistant to the preceptor of a school.

USH'ER, v.t.

To introduce, as a forerunner or harbinger; to forerun. The stars that usher evening, rose. Milton. The Examiner was ushered into the world by a letter, setting forth the great genius of the author. Addison.

USH'ER-ED, pp.

Introduced.

USH'ER-ING, ppr.

Introducing, as a forerunner.

US-QUE-BAUGH, n. [Ir. uisge, water, and bagh, life.]

A compound distilled spirit. From this word, by contraction, we have whisky.

US'TION, n. [Fr. ustion; L. ustio, from uro, ustus, to burn.]

The act of burning; the state of being burnt.

US-TO'RI-OUS, a. [supra.]

Having the quality of burning. Watts.

US-TU-LA'TION, n. [L. ustulatus.]

1. The act of burning or searing. Petty.
2. In metallurgy, ustulation is the operation of expelling one substance from another by heat, as sulphur and arsenic from ores, in a muffle.
3. In pharmacy, the roasting or drying of moist substances so as to prepare them for pulverizing; also, the burning of wine. Cyc.

US-U-AL, a. [s as z. Fr. usuel; from use.]

Customary; common; frequent; such as occurs in ordinary practice, or in the ordinary course of events. Rainy weather is not usual in this climate. Consultation with oracles was formerly a thing very usual. Hooker

US-U-AL-LY, adv. [s as z.]

Commonly; customarily; ordinarily. Men usually find some excuse for their vices. It is usually as cold in North America in the fortieth degree of latitude, as it is in the west of Europe in the fiftieth.

US-U-AL-NESS, n. [s as z.]

Commonness; frequency.

U-SU-CAP'TION, n. [L. usus, use, and capio, to take.]

In the civil law, the same as prescription in the common law; the acquisition of the title or right to property by the uninterrupted and undisputed possession of it for a certain term prescribed by law.

U'SU-FRUCT, n. [L. usus, use, and fructus, fruit.]

The temporary use and enjoyment of lands or tenements; or the right of receiving the fruits and profits of lands or other thing, without having the right to alienate or change the property. Cyc.