usage

noun9

1. •
   Utilization.
2. •
   The act of using something; use, employment.
3. •
   The established custom of using language; the ways and contexts in which spoken and written words are used, especially by a certain group of people or in a certain region.
4. •
   Prevailing language style: how words are used among a populace.

   • In descriptive fact, word senses are established by usage.
5. •
   Choice of language style (made by a speaker or writer).

   • In prescriptive ideal, writers will optimize their usage.
6. •
   Habit, practice.
7. •
   A custom or established practice.

   • [S]everal young people sung sacred music in the churchyard at night, which it seems is an usage here. — 1792
8. •
   Custom, tradition.
9. •
   (no longer used) Action towards someone; treatment, especially in negative sense.

   • Whose sharp provokement them incenst so sore, / That both were bent t'avenge his usage base […] — 1596