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
Fewer cities are volunteering to spend billions on infrastructure that sometimes falls into disuse.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 1, 2024
Yet as bots like ChatGPT become increasingly popular and sophisticated, Vincent and some of his colleagues wonder what will happen if Wikipedia, outflanked by A.I. that has cannibalized it, suffers from disuse and dereliction.
From New York Times ● Jul. 18, 2023
His voice was strange and rusty, as if fallen into disuse.
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
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
Last month, the authorities announced plans to convert disused state buildings into prisons.
From Barron's ● Aug. 2, 2026
The long-vacant site has become a magnet for so-called urban explorers, who prowl abandoned malls, hospitals, power plants, amusement parks, factories and any other disused structure they can breach.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
Capricorn’s house was a large, bulky building, which might once have been the village hall, a disused monastery, or a school.
From "Inkheart" by Cornelia Funke
The practice still continued in England of disusing tillage and throwing the land into enclosures, for the sake of pasture.
From The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part D. From Elizabeth to James I. by David Hume
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 no mere sentimental or capricious dislike to the pig, on the part of any number of persons, could now procure an enactment for disusing that animal.
From Moral Science; a Compendium of Ethics by Alexander Bain
And finally, it is now near two hundred years since the Society of Quakers denied the authority of the rite altogether, and gave good reasons for disusing it.
From Transcendentalism in New England A History by Octavius Brooks Frothingham
Oh the general shamefulness of disusing the feet God had given me.
From The Quality of Mercy by William Dean Howells
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