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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 (gcide)

Usage \Us"age\, n. [F. usage, LL. usaticum. See {Use}.]
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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.
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My brother
Is prisoner to the bishop here, at whose hands
He hath good usage and great liberty. --Shak.
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2. Manners; conduct; behavior. [Obs.]
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A gentle nymph was found,
Hight Astery, excelling all the crew
In courteous usage. --Spenser.
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3. Long-continued practice; customary mode of procedure;
custom; habitual use; method. --Chaucer.
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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.
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4. Customary use or employment, as of a word or phrase in a
particular sense or signification.
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5. Experience. [Obs.]
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In eld [old age] is both wisdom and usage.
--Chaucer.
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Syn: Custom; use; habit.

Usage: {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." --Locke. "Of things once received and
confirmed by use, long usage is a law sufficient."
--Hooker. In law, the words usage and custom are often
used interchangeably, but the word custom also has a
technical and restricted sense. See {Custom}, n., 3.
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