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.
Usage: {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.