used definition

English

Etymology

From Middle English used, equivalent to use +‎ -ed.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /juːzd/
• (past of use): enPR: yo͞ozd, IPA^(key): /juːzd/

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• (auxiliary verb): IPA^(key): /juːzd/, /juːst/

  • Audio (UK)

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• Rhymes: -uːst

Verb

used

1. simple past tense 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.

2. (intransitive, auxiliary, defective, only in past tense/participle) To perform habitually; to be accustomed [to doing something].

   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)

1. That is or has or have been used.
   • 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.

   The ground was littered with used syringes left behind by drug abusers.

2. That has or have previously been owned by someone else.

   He bought a used car.

3. 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

• (having been used): unused
• (previously owned by someone else): new

Hyponyms

Derived terms

• usedness

Translations

See also

• used to

Anagrams

• Dues, desu, dues, duse, sued