Also 6 Sc. usar. [f. USE v. + -ER1. Cf. OF. useur.]
1. One who has or makes use of a thing; one who uses or employs anything.
c. 1400. Love, Bonavent. Mirr. (1908), 70. So ofte þe maker and þe vsere offendeth god.
a. 1425. trans. Arderne’s Treat. Fistula, etc., 8. Þe forseid [counsels] … shal giffe a gracious going to þe vser to þe hiȝte of worship.
1467. in Eng. Gilds (1870), 387. That it be so stopped by the doers or vsers therof.
1579. Northbrooke, Dicing (1843), 177. God graunt that … the magistrates … may … set sharpe punishment for the vsers and teachers thereof.
c. 1600. Shaks., Sonn., ix. But beauties waste hath in the world an end, And kept vnvsde the vser so destroyes it.
1626. Donne, Serm. (1640), 675. As he [sc. God] sees him a good or bad user of his graces.
1683. Tryon, Way to Health, 223. These Superfluities … are become as it were Essential to the Nature of the Users.
1711. Countrey-Man’s Lett. Curat., 58. What tho’ all our Reformers had been users and readers of the English Service?
1738. Warburton, Div. Legat., I. 84. The utmost Consumption may be made … without Injury to the User.
1846. Greener, Sci. Gunnery, p. vii. The safety of the user of guns.
1846. Mozley, Ess. (1878), I. 251. He is a user of Puritanism.
1862. Cornh. Mag., VI. 608. A moderate user of tobacco.
1876. Whitney, Language & its Study, iii. 74. It seeks … to save time and labour to the users of language.
1880. Belmont Chronicle (OH), 2 Sept., 3/4. Deceased for many years previous to his death had been an inordinate user of opium.
† 2. Sc. One who puts a writ, etc., in force or execution. Obs.
1576. in Excheq. Rolls Scotl., XX. 504. David Fowlar,… usar of the said precept, declarit that he deliverit [it] … to John Kellie.
1609. Skene, Reg. Maj., Forme of Proces, 122. The wreit or evident is declared to be fals:… And the vser thereof, is punished capitallie.
c. 1630. Sir T. Hope, Minor Practicks (1734), 242. If the King … give a Letter of Regress;… when the Order of Redemption is used and declared, the User of the Redemption is immediately seased, upon the Sight of the Regress.
† 3. A usurer. Obs.–1
1566. Drant, Horace, Sat., I. ii. A viij b. What soeuer cums by vsers skylle, to get, and gender more.
4. north. dial. A useful animal.
1828. Carr, Craven Gloss., s.v., A cow is said to be a good user, when she yields abundance of milk, &c.
1863. Mrs. Toogood, Yorks. Dial. (MS.).
