Us"age (?), n. [F. usage, LL.
usaticum. See Use.]
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 usage and great liberty.
Shak. 2. Manners; conduct; behavior.
[Obs.]
A gentle nymph was found,
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. -- 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.
Hear it pronounced