disuse

American  

[dis-yoos, dis-yooz] / dɪsˈjus, dɪsˈjuz /

noun

1. discontinuance of use or practice.

   Traditional customs are falling into disuse.

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verb (used with object)

disused, disusing

1. to cease to use.

disuse British  

/ dɪsˈjuːs /

noun

1. the condition of being unused; neglect (often in the phrases in or into disuse )

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Etymology

Origin of disuse

1375–1425; late Middle English. See dis- ¹, use

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

See Examples For:

disuse disused disusing

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

The body’s sensors that on Earth raise our blood pressure when we stand up from lying down, so that we don’t faint, grow lazy with disuse.

From New York Times ● Nov. 12, 2023

“I’m not allowed,” she says, voice rough with disuse.

From "The Cruel Prince" by Holly Black

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

Ries, the bankruptcy trustee, said offices in Texas were disused and decrepit—his foot went through the floor when he visited one location around two months after McClain’s death.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 7, 2026

Around 40 disused shipping containers are being repurposed into two-bedroom homes, with a kitchen and a bathroom.

From BBC ● May 22, 2026

One caused a fire at a disused oil storage site in eastern Latvia.

From Barron's ● May 14, 2026

Spread out beneath them was a vast disused quarry.

From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques

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 Hume, David

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 Tuke, Daniel Hack

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 Bain, Alexander

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 Adams, Abigail

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 Streatfeild, R. A. (Richard Alexander)