Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Usage
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
My brother
Is prisoner to the bishop here, at whose hands
He hath good
Is prisoner to the bishop here, at whose hands
He hath good
usage
and great liberty. Shakespeare
2.
Manners; conduct; behavior.
[Obs.]
A gentle nymph was found,
Hight Astery, excelling all the crew
In courteous
Hight Astery, excelling all the crew
In courteous
usage
. Spenser.
3.
Long-continued practice; customary mode of procedure; custom; habitual use; method.
Chaucer.
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.
4.
Customary use or employment, as of a word or phrase in a particular sense or signification.
5.
Experience.
[Obs.]
In eld [old age] is both wisdom and
usage
. Chaucer.
Syn. – Custom; use; habit.
– , 3.
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
, Noun.
Webster 1828 Edition
Usage
U'SAGE
, n s as z. [See Use.]1.
Treatment; an action or series of actions performed by one person towards another, or which directly affect him; as good usage; ill usage; hard usage. Gentle usage will often effect what harsh usage will not. The elephant may be governed by mild usage.2.
Use, or long continued use; custom; practice. Uninterrupted usage for a long time, or immemorial usage constitutes prescription. Custom is a local usage; prescription is a personal usage. In language, usage is the foundation of all rules.Of things once received and confirmed by use, long usage is a law sufficient.
3.
Manners; behavior. Obs.