ppl. a. [f. USE v. + -ED1.]
I. † 1. Customarily employed, experienced, or met with; accustomed, usual, wonted. Obs.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., I. met. v. (1868), 22. Þe euesterre esperus … comeþ eft aȝeynes hir vsed cours.
c. 1440. Capgrave, St. Kath., IV. 1719. These too natures in oure lord ihesu were … coupled to-geder ageyn vsed kynde.
1445. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), I. 343. Thei shall ocupye with all maner of cariagez … the vsed way within the ground.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., V. ii. 489. These now had and vsid religiouns in the chirche.
1480. Wardr. Acc. Edw. IV. (1830), 150. A pane of scarlet furrid with used ermyns.
1579. E. K., Spenser’s Sheph. Cal., Gen. Argt. ¶ 2. To call them by the vsed and best knowen name.
1650. Howell, Giraffi’s Rev. Naples, I. 2. Forcing him [sc. Gensericus] to bid a us’d farewell to fair Italie.
1655. Moufet & Bennet, Health’s Improv., xxix. 272. I perswade strong and indifferent stomachs to continue their used Diet.
b. That is or has been made use of; utilized.
1594–. [see WELL-USED].
1758. B. Franklin, Poor Richard (1890), 270. The used Key is always bright.
1864. E. A. Parkes, Pract. Hygiene, 157. The used surfaces of the teeth begin to bear a square mark.
1885. J. W. Palmer, Bric-à-Brac, 27. Papering a room with used stamps.
2. † a. Established by usage; customary. Obs.
c. 1450. trans. De Imitatione, III. xiii. 81. The olde used custom wol wiþstonde, but it shal be ouercomen by a better custom.
1603. Florio, Montaigne, II. xv. 358. An auncient custome, and vsed cerimony.
b. Used and wont, that is usual or customary; according to use and custom. Sc.
1510. Reg. Privy Seal Scotl., I. 315/2. Payand thairfor ȝerelie four pundis thre s. usuale money,… with all maner of dewiteis usit and wount.
1562. Reg. Cupar Abbey, I. 362. Item, to the convent … for ane part of thair sustentatioun vsit and wont.
1609. Skene, Reg. Maj., II. Table 63. Bot the fourt heire sall make service vsed and wont.
1718. in Nairne Peerage Evidence (1874), 34. With the rights rents and services … used and wont.
1814. Scott, Wav., l. [He] claimed permission to perform … the service used and wont.
1864. Jedburgh Council Rec., 31 Oct. (MS.). With all ceremonies used and wont.
3. Experienced (in something); expert. Latterly Sc.
c. 1425. Eng. Conq. Ireland, 23. Throgh kynde of Fraunce, we ben wsyd in wepyn.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, III. 379. For thai war wicht, and weill wsyt in wer.
1786. Burns, Epist. to J. Rankine, ix. Some auld us’d hands had taen a note, That [etc.].
1824. Scott, St. Ronan’s, iii. Dick … was an auld used hand.
II. Used up. 4. U.S. Discussed thoroughly; talked of, or written about, critically.
1839. Mrs. Kirkland, A New Home, xxxv. 237. After tea the poor Brents were completely ‘used up,’ to borrow a phrase much in vogue with us, and the next day I was … asked … if I had heard that Mr. and Mrs. Brent were going to ‘part.’
1848. Poe, J. R. Lowell, Wks. 1895, VIII. 5. The various criticisms, in which we have been amused (rather ill-naturedly) at seeing Mr. Lowell ‘used up.’
5. slang or colloq. Thoroughly exhausted by physical exertion or hardship; tired out, ‘done up.’
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxviii. [He was] barefooted…; ‘cleaned out’ to the last real, and completely ‘used up.’
1850. Smedley, F. Fairlegh, xlvii. Why, the perspiration is pouring down your face,—you look regularly used-up.
1888. J. C. Harris, Free Joe, etc., 226. It was a five-mile excursion; and he returned, as Mrs. Haley expressed it, ‘a used-up man.’
b. Knocked up by excess.
1890. Gunter, Miss Nobody, xiii. My heavens! what a head I have accumulated over night!… I wonder if Avonmere is used up likewise?
6. Worn out, debilitated, rendered useless, as with hard work, age, dissipation, etc.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, x. A smoke-dried, sunburnt, used-up, invalided old dog of a Major, Sir.
1862. Calverley, Poems, 57. What is coffee, but a noxious berry, Born to keep used-up Londoners awake?
1863. W. C. Baldwin, Afr. Hunting, vi. 214. An old used-up brute [sc. horse].
1871. Eleanor Grove, trans. Ebers’ Egypt. Princess, I. Preface (Tauchn.), p. xv. In days when a used-up man of the world, like Antony, could desire in his will that [etc.].
transf. 1852. C. B. Mansfield, Paraguay, etc. (1856), 369. The more respectable people here … have a sort of used-up look, which is not inviting.
1853. Dickens, Bleak Ho., liii. The cousin … yawns, ‘Vayli’—being the used-up for ‘very likely.’
1871. Earle, Philol. English Tongue, .i 106. The extreme oddity of our sound of U comes out under a used-up or languid utterance.
1875. J. Grant, One of the ‘600,’ iii. The used-up bearing of those … who affect to act as if … life itself was a bore.
b. Emotionally exhausted; blasé.
1845. C. J. Mathews, Used Up, I. i. 8. Here I am, at thirty-three, completely blazé—a man literally ‘used up!’
1853. Mrs. Gaskell, Ruth, xxiii. He was pleased to feel jealous again. He had been really afraid he was too much ‘used-up’ for such sensations.
7. Reduced, exhausted, or consumed by using; rendered unserviceable by use.
1855. Delamer, Kitchen Garden, 179. In short, make a general clearance of used-up things [in a garden].
1881. Shairp, Asp. Poetry, 132. The accumulations of used-up verbiage, which had so long choked the sources of inspiration.
1896. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., I. 312. The contaminated or used-up air.
Hence † Usedly adv., commonly; Usedness. Also Used-upness. nonce-use.
1561. T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., IV. 81. But it was …. vsedly the custome … to shorten their iourney.
1680. Baxter, Answ. Stillingfl., xxxiii. 48. If Usefulness and Usedness … may afford us a Prognostick.
1871. Mrs. Whitney, Real Folks, xiii. You would notice instantly the consummate usedness to the world.
1891. ‘L Keith’ (Grace L. K. Johnston), Halletts, II. xi. 220. There was a good deal of used-upness about Spenceley, though … the world had still certain points open to his combativeness.
