English

Proverb

use it or lose it

1. Skills or knowledge that are seldom applied are likely to be lost with time.
   • 2011, Tim Wagle & Paul Theobald, "Connecting Communities and Schools: Accountability in the Post-NCLB Era", in The Phenomenon of Obama and the Agenda for Education: Can Hope Audaciously Trump Neoliberalism (eds. Paul R. Carr & Brad J. Porfilio), Information Age Publishing Inc. (2011), ISBN 9781617354502, page 262:

     Any piece of curriculum, devoid of an opportunity to wield it, suffers the same fate as unutilized Spanish instruction. The time-tested colloquialism is accurate: use it or lose it.

   • For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:use it or lose it.
2. Property and privileges will be lost if they are not utilized.
   • 2011, Marq De Villiers, Our Way Out: Principles for a Post-Apocalyptic World, McClelland & Stewart (2011), ISBN 9780771026485, page 310:

     The legal rationale was simple: in much of the west, water rights operate under the "use it or lose it" principle. If you don't use the water, others had the right to appropriate it and use it themselves.

   • For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:use it or lose it.