\Us"age\, n. [F. usage, LL. usaticum. See {Use}.]
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. [Obs.]
         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. --Chaucer.
         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. [Obs.]
         In eld [old age] is both wisdom and usage.
                                               --Chaucer.
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.