uses

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of use.

   The chef uses fresh herbs in nearly every dish.

   This old engine uses far too much fuel.

   Note

   The form that goes with he, she, it or a singular noun, as in the chef uses or the engine uses. When the meaning is consuming, it often takes up, as in the heater uses up the oil. Watch the object. With one, the verb means employ or consume. With none, as in he still uses, it usually means taking drugs, so leaving the object out can say more than intended.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of use.

   Baking soda has dozens of uses in the kitchen.

   Researchers discovered new uses for the recycled plastic.

   Note

   The plural belongs only to the countable meanings of use: functions and purposes, separate acts of using, occasions of need. Usefulness itself does not take a plural, so something is of no use, never of no uses. The drug-taking sense does not pluralize either. A tool has many uses, but a habit is simply drug use. The same spelling also serves as the verb form, as in she uses it daily.

3. 3
   nouncountableplural

   A form of equitable ownership in English law in which one person enjoys the profits of land while another holds its legal title in trust.

   Medieval lawyers devised uses to let a beneficiary draw income from land held in another's name.

   By creating uses, families could shield their estates from feudal taxes and pass profits to their heirs.

   Note

   A term from English property law, met in the plural. The arrangement splits land between two people. A feoffee holds the legal title, and a beneficiary takes the profits. It is a forerunner of the modern trust, so it turns up in legal history rather than in ordinary speech. Do not read it as the everyday plural. A deed creating uses has nothing to do with the purposes a thing serves.

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