Implied in the one early instance (1483), of usefulness, but app. not current till c. 1600; cf. USELESS a.
1. Of persons: Having the ability or qualities to bring about good, advantage, benefit, etc.; helpful for any purpose; serviceable. Also of animals (cf. 2).
1595. Shaks., John, V. ii. 81. I am too high-borne to be propertied,… Or [a] vsefull seruing-man.
1646. Verney Mem. (1907), I. 343. Women were never soe usefull as now.
1671. Milton, Samson, 564. Now blind, disheartn’d,… quell’d, To what can I be useful?
a. 1700[?]. Tak your Auld Cloak about ye, ii., in Ramsay, Evergreen. My Cromie is a useful cow.
1708. J. C., Compl. Collier (1845), 19. Especially when such an Adventurer is so useful to the Publick.
1776. Gibbon, Decl. & F., ii. (1782), I. 49. If he had any opportunity of rendering himself either useful or agreeable.
1831. Sir J. Sinclair, Corr., II. 349. Baron Itzenplitz … wishes [to see] his children … useful for their country.
1861. Whyte-Melville, Market Harb., ix. Useful horses;… and seem pretty fit to go. Ibid. Very like hunters: remarkably useful horses indeed!
1887. Ruskin, Præterita, II. 422. [He] was benevolently useful, as a landlord should be, in his county.
b. Theatr. (See quot.)
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav.,, II. (1848), 187. I was enrolled among the number of what are called useful men; those who enact soldiers, senators, and Banquo’s shadowy line.
2. Of things, actions, etc.: Having the character or quality to be of use or utility; suitable for use; advantageous, profitable, beneficial.
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., IV. xiv. 80. With a wound I must be cur’d. Draw that thy honest Sword, which thou hast worne Most vsefull for thy Country.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 183. Food no lesse pleasant and vsefull to Kine.
1644. Milton, Educ., 99. The usefullest points of grammar.
1669. Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., II. x. 76. How to make a most useful Instrument of the Stars.
c. 1737. Swift, Corr. (1913), V. 435. I cannot doubt of your being willing to encourage all useful inventions.
1752. Hume, Pol. Disc., iv. 67. Every thing useful to the life of man, arises from the ground.
1780. Mirror, No. 80. They … publish useful information to mankind.
1846. Landor, Imag. Conv., Wks. I. 197/2. We are not always to consider in our disquisitions what is pleasantest, but sometimes what is usefullest.
1871. Jowett, Plato, IV. 309. Exercises … useful both in peace and war.
1875. R. F. Martin, trans. Havrez’s Winding Mach., 8. We thus see that … the useful load exceeds the half of the total load.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer (1891), 337. A steady reader in her own line, which she denominated ‘useful.’
absol. 1802. C. Findlater, View Agric. Peebles, 55. Admirers of the curious, as much as of the useful, in farming.
1818. J. Foster, Contrib. Eclectic Rev. (1844), I. 482. The useful was to him the summum bonum.
1836–8. [see USELESS 1].
1892. Zangwill, Bow Mystery, 157. A man who has always preached the Useful day and night.
b. sb. A useful article. rare–1.
1662. Petty, Taxes, 21. Metals, cloth, linen, leather, and other usefuls.
Hence Usefullish a., somewhat useful. rare–1.
1848. Carlyle, in Froude, Life in London (1884), I. 421. I seem to them a desperate half mad, if usefullish fireman.
