disuse

From Old French desuser, equivalent to dis- +‎ use.

• (noun) IPA^(key): /dɪsˈjuːs/

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• (noun) Rhymes: -us
• (verb) IPA^(key): /dɪsˈjuːz/

• Audio (Southern England):

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disuse (uncountable)

1. The state of not being used; neglect.

   The garden fell into disuse and became overgrown.

• disused

disuse (third-person singular simple present disuses, present participle disusing, simple past and past participle disused)

1. (transitive) To cease the use of.
   • 1790, Edmond Malone, The Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare‎, London: H. Baldwin, Volume I, p. 194, footnote:

     Whether in process of time Shakspeare grew weary of the bondage of rhyme, or whether he became convinced of its impropriety in a dramatick dialogue, his neglect of rhyming (for he never wholly disused it) seems to have been gradual.

   • 1792, Cruelty the natural and inseparable Consequence of Slavery, preached March 11, 1792, at Hemel-Hempstead, Herts. By John Liddon, in The Monthly Review, May to August, Volume VIII, p. 238,

     The author does not fail to recommend the practice, adopted, it is said, by many thousands in the kingdom, of disusing the West India produce.

2. (transitive, archaic) To disaccustom.

   He was disused to hard work.

   • 1597, John Donne, The Calm‎, lines 39–44:

     Whether a rotten state, and hope of gaine,
     Or to disuse mee from the queasie paine
     Of being belov'd, and loving, or the thirst
     Of honour, or faire death, out pusht mee first,
     I lose my end: for here as well as I
     A desperate may live, and a coward die.

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