disuse
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
noun
Etymology
Origin of disuse
Explanation
Use the noun disuse to describe a condition of not being used. After years of disuse, you won't be surprised when your dad's motorcycle doesn't start. The word disuse implies at least a bit of neglect, and it can also mean that something has become obsolete or old-fashioned: "Typewriters fell into disuse after personal computers became available." You'll often find the word used in the graceful phrase "fall into disuse." The word comes from a Latin root, dis, which means "lack of," added to the word use, and it's been around since about 1400.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
After a brief resurgence during the Civil War, when it was used as a military route, the road fell into disuse.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
Since its closure along with the rail works in 1986, it fell into disuse and disrepair.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2024
This is why the Spanish, who arrived in the 1500s and set out to control the people by converting them to Catholicism, banned the cultivation and possession of the crop, which fell into disuse.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 25, 2024
Congress did remove that disability from most Confederates in 1872, and the provision fell into disuse.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 28, 2023
Char’s answer: “My tongue may wither from disuse here, but at least I shan’t lose words entirely while I still can write to you.”
From "Ella Enchanted" by Gail Carson Levine
In Brick Lane, the historic heart of London’s Bangladeshi community, residents oppose plans for a data centre in a disused brewery, citing the erosion of heritage and need for social housing.
From Barron's ● Sep. 8, 2026
On an adjacent island facing Setouchi are small disused bases that launched shinyo suicide motorboat attacks on Allied forces in World War II.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
The winning path follows the route of a disused Great Western Railway branch line which ran from Witham Junction to Yatton via Shepton Mallet, Wells and Cheddar.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
They also came after Israel bombed the disused Abu Duhur airbase in the country's northwest earlier in the week, claiming it wanted to avert Turkish troops deploying to the facility.
From Barron's ● Aug. 23, 2026
They walked up the street until they got to the bend of Carpenter’s Road where the boys lounged on a disused well.
From "Sula" by Toni Morrison
What a hushing of voices and cleansing of wits and disusing of oaths was there after my little lady came to our rough Habitation!
From Heralds of Empire Being the Story of One Ramsay Stanhope, Lieutenant to Pierre Radisson in the Northern Fur Trade by Agnes C. (Agnes Christina) Laut
From an internal desire on the part of the creature disusing it, to be quit of an organ which it finds troublesome.
From Life and Habit by R. A. (Richard Alexander) Streatfeild
But how this can be avoided entirely, I know not, but by disusing their goods and letting them perish in their hands.
From Familiar Letters of John Adams and His Wife Abigail Adams During the Revolution with a Memoir of Mrs. Adams by Abigail Adams
Of the asylums entirely disusing restraint, in some of them, as we have stated, the patients have been found tranquil and comfortable, and in others they have been unusually excited and disturbed.
From Chapters in the History of the Insane in the British Isles by Daniel Hack Tuke
Oh the general shamefulness of disusing the feet God had given me.
From The Quality of Mercy by William Dean Howells
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
