| 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) |
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| land use board of appeals | (LUBA) A seven-member board appointed to adjudicate land use disputes in Oregon. (05 Dec 1998) |
| polymorphism, single-stranded conformational | Variation occurring within a species in the conformation of denatured DNA fragments. These single-stranded DNA fragments are allowed to partially renature in a way that prevents the formation of double-stranded DNA. The fragments are run on polyacrylamide gels under various conditions to detect subtle changes in migration due to altered secondary structure. The resulting bands will align themselves if the fragments are the same, but will misalign if any point mutations are present. Sscps have been used in detecting mutations in various genes, such as oncogenes, tumour suppressor genes, and genes responsible for genetic diseases. (12 Dec 1998) |
| single | 1. One only, as distinguished from more than one; consisting of one alone; individual; separate; as, a single star. "No single man is born with a right of controlling the opinions of all the rest." (Pope) 2. Alone; having no companion. "Who single hast maintained, Against revolted multitudes, the cause Of truth." (Milton) 3. Hence, unmarried; as, a single man or woman. "Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness." (Shak) "Single chose to live, and shunned to wed." (Dryden) 4. Not doubled, twisted together, or combined with others; as, a single thread; a single strand of a rope. 5. Performed by one person, or one on each side; as, a single combat. "These shifts refuted, answer thy appellant, . . . Who now defles thee thrice ti single fight." (Milton) 6. Uncompounded; pure; unmixed. "Simple ideas are opposed to complex, and single to compound." (I. Watts) 7. Not deceitful or artful; honest; sincere. "I speak it with a single heart." (Shak) 8. Simple; not wise; weak; silly. "He utters such single matter in so infantly a voice." (Beau & Fl) Single ale, beer, or drink, small ale, etc, as contrasted with double ale, etc, which is stronger. Single bill, a single rope running through a fixed block. Origin: L. Singulus, a dim. From the root in simplex simple; cf. OE. & OF. Sengle, fr. L. Singulus. See Simple, and cf. Singular. 1. To select, as an individual person or thing, from among a number; to choose out from others; to separate. "Dogs who hereby can single out their master in the dark." (Bacon) "His blood! she faintly screamed her mind Still singling one from all mankind." (More) 2. To sequester; to withdraw; to retire. "An agent singling itself from consorts." (Hooker) 3. To take alone, or one by one. "Men . . . Commendable when they are singled." (Hooker) Origin: Singled; Singling. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| single ascertainment | Method of ascertainment of locating affected individuals by hospital or clinic admission or another way in which probability of encountering the same family twice approaches zero; thus, the probability that a family will be ascertained is proportional to the number of affected members. (05 Mar 2000) |
| single-blind method | A method in which either the observer(s) or the subject(s) is kept ignorant of the group to which the subjects are assigned. (12 Dec 1998) |
| single bond | A covalent bond resulting from the sharing of one pair of electrons; e.g., H3C-CH3 (ethane). (05 Mar 2000) |
| single cell protein | <protein> Protein produced by single cells in culture, especially Candida species, that could be of possible commercial importance in providing food sources from biotechnological processes. (10 Oct 1997) |
| single channel recording | Variant of patch clamp technique. (18 Nov 1997) |
| single-foot | An irregular gait of a horse; called also single-footed pace. See Single, "Single-foot is an irregular pace, rather rare, distinguished by the posterior extremities moving in the order of a fast walk, and the anterior extremities in that of a slow trot." (Stillman (The Horse in Motion)) Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| single-gene diseases | Hereditary disorders caused by a change (mutation) in a single gene. There are thousands of single-gene diseases including achondroplastic dwarfism, huntington disease, cystic fibrosis, sickle cell disease, duchenne muscular dystrophy, and haemophilia. Single-gene diseases typically describe classic simple mendelian patterns of inheritance (as autosomal dominant, autosomal recessive, and x-linked traits) by comparison with polygenic diseases. (12 Dec 1998) |
| single gene disorder | Hereditary disorder caused by a mutant allele of a single gene (for example, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, retinoblastoma, sickle cell disease). Compare: polygenic disorders. (09 Oct 1997) |
| single-hearted | Having an honest heart; free from duplicity. Sin"gle-heart"edly. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| single immunodiffusion | See: gel diffusion precipitin tests in one dimension, gel diffusion precipitin tests in two dimensions. (05 Mar 2000) |
| single lucent skull lesion | <radiology> Mnemonic: HELP ME, haemangioma, epidermoid / dermoid, leptomeningeal cyst, lambdoid suture defect, Paget's (osteoporosis circumscripta), post-surgical, metastasis (solitary), eosinophilic granuloma, encephalocele (12 Dec 1998) |