| usable light range | <microscopy> The ratio of the maximum to the minimum levels of illuminance over which a video camera or camera tube can provide a usable signal. Being aided by automatic irises, gray-wedge wheels, etc., in addition to varying electrode voltages where permissible, the usable light range can be several orders of magnitude greater than the intrascene dynamic range. See: intrascene dynamic range, condenser, variable-focus. (05 Aug 1998) |
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| usage | 1. The act of using; mode of using or treating; treatment; conduct with respect to a person or a thing; as, good usage; ill usage; hard usage. "My brother Is prisoner to the bishop here, at whose hands He hath good usage and great liberty." (Shak) 2. Manners; conduct; behavior. "A gentle nymph was found, Hight Astery, excelling all the crew In courteous usage." (Spenser) 3. Long-continued practice; customary mode of procedure; custom; habitual use; method. "It has now been, during many years, the grave and decorous usage of Parliaments to hear, in respectful silence, all expressions, acceptable or unacceptable, which are uttered from the throne." (Macaulay) 4. Customary use or employment, as of a word or phrase in a particular sense or signification. 5. Experience. "In eld [old age] is both wisdom and usage." (Chaucer) Synonym: Custom, use, habit. Usage, Custom. These words, as here compared, agree in expressing the idea of habitual practice; but a custom is not necessarily a usage. A custom may belong to many, or to a single individual. A usage properly belongs to the great body of a people. Hence, we speak of usage, not of custom, as the law of language. Again, a custom is merely that which has been often repeated, so as to have become, in a good degree, established. A usage must be both often repeated and of long standing. Hence, we speak of a "hew custom," but not of a "new usage." Thus, also, the "customs of society" is not so strong an expression as the "usages of society." "Custom, a greater power than nature, seldom fails to make them worship." . "Of things once received and confirmed by use, long usage is a law sufficient." . In law, the words usage and custom are often used interchangeably, but the word custom also has a technical and restricted sense. See Custom. Origin: F. Usage, LL. Usaticum. See Use. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| USAN | <abbreviation> United States Adopted Names. (05 Mar 2000) |
| usbeks | <ethnology> A Turkish tribe which about the close of the 15th century conquered, and settled in, that part of Asia now called Turkestan. Alternative forms: Uzbecks, and Uzbeks. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| use | 1. The act of employing anything, or of applying it to one's service; the state of being so employed or applied; application; employment; conversion to some purpose; as, the use of a pen in writing; his machines are in general use. "Books can never teach the use of books." (Bacon) "This Davy serves you for good uses." (Shak) "When he framed All things to man's delightful use." (Milton) 2. Occasion or need to employ; necessity; as, to have no further use for a book. 3. Yielding of service; advantage derived; capability of being used; usefulness; utility. "God made two great lights, great for their use To man." (Milton) "'T is use alone that sanctifies expense." (Pope) 4. Continued or repeated practice; customary employment; usage; custom; manner; habit. "Let later age that noble use envy." (Spenser) "How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable, Seem to me all the uses of this world!" (Shak) 5. Common occurrence; ordinary experience. "O Caesar! these things are beyond all use." (Shak) 6. The special form of ritual adopted for use in any diocese; as, the Sarum, or Canterbury, use; the Hereford use; the York use; the Roman use; etc. "From henceforth all the whole realm shall have but one use." (Pref. To Book of Common Prayer) 7. The premium paid for the possession and employment of borrowed money; interest; usury. "Thou art more obliged to pay duty and tribute, use and principal, to him." (Jer. Taylor) 8. [In this sense probably a corruption of OF. Oes, fr. L. Opus need, business, employment, work. Cf. Operate. The benefit or profit of lands and tenements. Use imports a trust and confidence reposed in a man for the holding of lands. He to whose use or benefit the trust is intended shall enjoy the profits. An estate is granted and limited to A for the use of B. 9. A stab of iron welded to the side of a forging, as a shaft, near the end, and afterward drawn down, by hammering, so as to lengthen the forging. Contingent, or Springing, use, the stat. 27 Henry VIII, cap. 10, which transfers uses into possession, or which unites the use and possession. To make use of, To put to use, to employ; to derive service from; to use. Origin: OE. Us use, usage, L. Usus, from uti, p. P. Usus, to use. See Use. 1. To make use of; to convert to one's service; to avail one's self of; to employ; to put a purpose; as, to use a plow; to use a chair; to use time; to use flour for food; to use water for irrigation. "Launcelot Gobbo, use your legs." (Shak) "Some other means I have which may be used." (Milton) 2. To behave toward; to act with regard to; to treat; as, to use a beast cruelly. "I will use him well." "How wouldst thou use me now?" (Milton) "Cato has used me ill." (Addison) 3. To practice customarily; to make a practice of; as, to use diligence in business. "Use hospitality one to another." (1 Pet. Iv. 9) 4. To accustom; to habituate; to render familiar by practice; to inure; employed chiefly in the passive participle; as, men used to cold and hunger; soldiers used to hardships and danger. "I am so used in the fire to blow." (Chaucer) "Thou with thy compeers, Used to the yoke, draw'st his triumphant wheels." (Milton) To use one's self, to behave. "Pray, forgive me, if I have used myself unmannerly." . To use up. To consume or exhaust by using; to leave nothing of; as, to use up the supplies. To exhaust; to tire out; to leave no capacity of force or use in; to overthrow; as, he was used up by fatigue. Synonym: Employ. Use, Employ. We use a thing, or make use of it, when we derive from it some enjoyment or service. We employ it when we turn that service into a particular channel. We use words to express our general meaning; we employ certain technical terms in reference to a given subject. To make use of, implies passivity in the thing; as, to make use of a pen; and hence there is often a material difference between the two words when applied to persons. To speak of "making use of another" generally implies a degrading idea, as if we had used him as a tool; while employ has no such sense. A confidential friend is employed to negotiate; an inferior agent is made use of on an intrigue. "I would, my son, that thou wouldst use the power Which thy discretion gives thee, to control And manage all." (Cowper) "To study nature will thy time employ: Knowledge and innocence are perfect joy." (Dryden) Origin: OE. Usen, F. User to use, use up, wear out, LL. Usare to use, from L. Uti, p. P. Usus, to use, OL. Oeti, oesus; of uncertain origin. Cf. Utility. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| useless | Having, or being of, no use; unserviceable; producing no good end; answering no valuable purpose; not advancing the end proposed; unprofitable; ineffectual; as, a useless garment; useless pity. "Not to sit idle with so great a gift Useless, and thence ridiculous." (Milton) Synonym: Fruitless, ineffectual. Useless, Fruitless, Ineffectual. We speak of an attempt, effort, etc, as being useless when there are in it inherent difficulties which forbid the hope of success, as fruitless when it fails, not from any such difficulties, but from some unexpected hindrance arising to frustrate it; as, the design was rendered fruitless by the death of its projector. Ineffectual nearly resembles fruitless, but implies a failure of a less hopeless character; as, after several ineffectual efforts, I at last succeeded. "Useless are all words Till you have writ "performance" with your swords. The other is for waiving." (Beau. & Fl) "Waiving all searches into antiquity, in relation to this controversy, as being either needless or fruitless." (Waterland) "Even our blessed Savior's preaching, who spake as never man spake, was ineffectual to many." (Bp. Stillingfleet) Use"lessly, Use"lessness. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| user-computer interface | The portion of an interactive computer program that issues messages to and receives commands from a user. (12 Dec 1998) |
| USFS | United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service. (05 Dec 1998) |
| USFWS | United States Fish and Wildlife Service. (05 Dec 1998) |
| Usher's syndrome | <syndrome> Autosomal recessive inheritance; the two forms are distinguishable only by linkage data; causing sensorineural heraring loss and retinitis pigmentosa. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Usher, Barney | <person> Canadian dermatologist, *1899. See: Senear-Usher disease, Senear-Usher syndrome. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Usher, Charles Howard | <person> English ophthalmologist, 1865-1942. See: Usher's syndrome. (05 Mar 2000) |
| usitative | Denoting usual or customary action. "The usitative aorist." Origin: L. Usitari to use often. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| usnea | <botany> A genus of lichens, most of the species of which have long, gray, pendulous, and finely branched fronds. Usnea barbata is the common bearded lichen which grows on branches of trees in northern forests. Origin: NL, from Ar. Usnah moss. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| usnic | <chemistry> Pertaining to, or designating, a complex acid obtained, as a yellow crystalline substance, from certain genera of lichens (Usnea, Parmelia, etc). Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |