used
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English
Etymology
From Middle English used, equivalent to use + -ed.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /juːzd/
- (US) (past of use): enPR: yo͞ozd, IPA(key): /juzd/
Audio (US) (file)
- (Received Pronunciation) (auxiliary verb): IPA(key): /juːst/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
- (US) (auxiliary verb): IPA(key): /just/
- Rhymes: -uːst
Verb
used
- simple past and past participle of use
- You used me!
- 1948, Carey McWilliams, North from Mexico / The Spanish-Speaking People of The United States, J. B. Lippincott Company, page 75:
- In 1866 Colonel J. F. Meline noted that the rebozo had almost disappeared in Santa Fe and that hoop skirts, on sale in the stores, were being widely used.
- (intransitive, auxiliary, defective, only in past tense/participle) To perform habitually; to be accustomed .
- He used to live here, but moved away last year.
- The club used to be frequented by locals; then, after the "incident", it used to get raided by the cops.
Adjective
used (comparative more used, superlative most used)
- That is or has or have been used.
- The ground was littered with used syringes left behind by drug abusers.
- 2013 August 3, “Boundary problems”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:
- Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory. Its apparent simplicity explains why it is scrutinised down to tenths of a percentage point every month.
- That has or have previously been owned by someone else.
- He bought a used car.
- Familiar through use; usual; accustomed.
- I got used to this weather.
- 1965, Bob Dylan, Like a Rolling Stone:
- Nobody's ever taught you how to live out on the street and now you're gonna have to get used to it.
Synonyms
- (having been used):
- (previously owned by someone else): pre-owned, second-hand
Antonyms
Hyponyms
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
that is or has or have been used
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that has or have previously been owned by someone else
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accustomed
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