used

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of use.

   The chef used fresh herbs in nearly every dish.

   We used the old map to find the hidden trail.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs here. It is the finite past (we used the old map), and it is also the participle that follows have in the perfect or be in the passive: hoop skirts "were being widely used," Carey McWilliams writes in North from Mexico (1948). With a person as object, as in "You used me!", the form carries the verb's harsher meaning of exploiting someone rather than simply employing them.

2. 2
   adjective

   Previously owned or possessed by another person, rather than being new.

   They saved money by buying a used car instead of a new one.

   The dealership keeps a separate lot for used vehicles.

   Similarsecond-hand, pre-owned

   Oppositenew

   Note

   A used car may have barely been driven. What counts is the previous owner, not the wear. That is why its opposite is new rather than unused. It is also why second-hand and pre-owned can stand in for it but not for the "already put to use" sense. Nobody calls a dirty tissue pre-owned.

3. 3
   SayYOOSTUS/just/UK/juːst/

   verb

   Indicating an action or state that occurred regularly or was true in the past but does not continue into the present.

   There used to be a bakery on this corner before the fire.

   People used to send long letters when telephones were rare.

   Note

   A fixed frame, used to plus a bare infinitive, that always points back at something that has stopped. In questions and negatives the final d usually drops in writing: did you use to, didn't use to. Keep it apart from the "accustomed" adjective, which takes a noun or -ing form. "I used to work nights" is history; "I am used to working nights" is habit.

4. 4
   SayYOOSTUS/just/UK/juːst/

   adjective

   Accustomed to something through repeated experience, so it no longer seems strange or difficult.

   After a month abroad, he was used to the unfamiliar food.

   Nurses on night shifts grow used to working while the city sleeps.

   Similaraccustomed, inured, acclimatized

   Oppositeunaccustomed, unused

   Note

   Habit seen from the inside: what you are used to no longer surprises you. The to here is a preposition, so a noun or an -ing form follows, as in used to the heat or used to working late. It never takes a bare verb, which is the mark of the past-habit construction. Pair it with be for the settled state, and with grow for the slower business of adjusting.

5. 5
   adjective

   Having already been put to use, and so no longer fresh, clean, or unused.

   The sink was piled high with used dishes after the party.

   She tossed the used tissue into the trash and reached for a clean one.

   Similardirty, soiled

   Oppositeunused

   Note

   Gradable in an unexpected way: more used and most used rarely measure wear. When The Economist in 2013 calls GDP economists' "most-used metric," the comparison is about how often something is used, not how worn it is. The compound is hyphenated before a noun. Without comparison, as in used syringes or used dishes, it means spent or soiled, and its opposite is unused.

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