using

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of use.

   The lab is using a faster computer this year.

   Using fresh ingredients, the chef improved every dish on the menu.

   Note

   Every meaning of use passes through this form, including those that take a particle or no object at all. Using up means consuming something to the end, as in using up the savings. Bare using, with no object stated, means taking a drug one is addicted to: he has started using again. Only context separates that meaning from ordinary employing.

   They kept using up their savings on repairs.

   After two clean years, he has started using again.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of putting something to a purpose, or the fact of being put to use.

   The repeated using of the old bridge gradually weakened its supports.

   Wise using of public money earns the trust of taxpayers.

   Similaruse, usage, utilization, employment

   Note

   A verbal noun that behaves like an ordinary noun: it takes of before its object (the using of public money), while the gerund takes the object directly (using public money). It is usually uncountable, but it can be pluralized. Philip H. Wicksteed's The Commonsense of Political Economy (1910) sets a household's payings beside its usings of commodities, matching one -ing noun with another.

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