use

use

1. The transitive verb meaning ‘to make use of’ is pronounced yooz and the past form is used (yoozd). The corresponding noun use is pronounced yoos.

2. Used is pronounced yoost and followed by to in a number of special constructions:

a) Be or become or get used to + noun or verbal noun means ‘be (etc.) accustomed to or familiar with’:

She had got used to the sissy…thin-blooded climate of Auckland —D. M. Davin, 1986

/

He still isn't used to her being old enough to drive —New Yorker, 1987

/

He…became used to collectors visiting the family home in the early 1950s to record his mother's folk songs —Independent, 2007

.

b) Use to (usually in the form used to or had used to) + infinitive refers to what happened or existed in the past but does no longer at the time referred to:

She had used to squat with old Mataka on the ground —Muriel Spark, 1969

/

I know what you're thinking, Patrick, and I used to think it too —Kingsley Amis, 1988

. Negatives and questions are formed with do + the use form (What time did she use to return? —L. Thomas, 1972 /

I didn't use to curse or swear at them —M. Brogden, 1991

) or, with somewhat more formal effect, directly with not or by inversion in the manner of the semi-modal verbs dare and need (I used not to dream —Nina Bawden, 1987 /

She used not to be so censorious of others' behaviour —T. Barnes, 1991

). The form usedn't (or usen't) is also found in casual English but is less suitable in more formal contexts.