Unused Meaning
/ʌnˈjuːzd/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
adjNot used.
adjNot accustomed (to), unfamiliar with.
Sentence Examples
We have vast amounts of unused information.
We have two unused rooms in our house.
CEFR Practice Quiz
Since no guests showed up, all the fancy dinner plates remained completely ____.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The guest room has remained ____ for several weeks, as we have not had any visitors stay with us recently today.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Germanic *un- Proto-West Germanic *un- Old English un- Middle English un- English un- English used English unused From un- + used.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"If you have an unused credit for a year for which you also have additional tax liability because of an early disposal of an asset, you may reduce the added tax liability by the current year's unused credit that may be carried back solely because of recomputation of the investment credit for the prior year."
— 1972 October, “Losses from Operating a Farm”, in Farmer's Tax Guide: Income and Self Employment Tax (Internal Revenue Service; publication 225), Washington, D.C.: Internal Revenue Service, Department of the Treasury, published 1973, →OCLC, page 35:
"A particular problem is the disposal of small quantities of unwanted, surplus, or unused pesticides. Considerable attention has been given recently to the detoxification, prior to disposal, of sizable amounts of pesticides such as the herbicides returned from Vietnam. Some attention has also been given to the smaller amounts of unused pesticides at the consumer level, and in a few communities, specific pesticides such as DDT have been collected by authorities and safely disposed of by proven procedures."
— 1975 June, Edward W. Lawless, Thomas L. Ferguson, Alfred F. Meiners, “Introduction”, in Guidelines for the Disposal of Small Quantities of Unused Pesticides (Environmental Protection Technology Series; EPA-670/2-75-057), Cincinnati, Oh.: National Environmental Research Center, United States Environmental Protection Agency, →OCLC, page 9:
"The Lancaster House agreement's clauses on land distribution, which were later written into the independence constitution, are worth reading if only to understand why [Robert] Mugabe reserves some of his most vitriolic verbal assaults for the British who, as the one-time colonial power, presided over the conference. The clause made it extremely difficult for Zimbabwe's democratically elected government to procure land, even land that was unused. The legal hoops through which a government would have to jump to do so were designed to ensure that it would rarely, if ever, happen."
— 2001, George Alagiah, A Passage to Africa, London: Little, Brown Book Group, →ISBN:
"The legislation also tightens the share of unused exemptions states can carry over from year to year."
— 2023 June 2, Tami Luhby, “Here’s who would have to work for government benefits – and who wouldn’t – under the debt ceiling package”, in CNN:
"I pray you in your Letters, / When you ſhall theſe vnluckie deeds relate, / Speake of me, as I am. […] / Of one, whoſe ſubdu'd Eyes, / Albeit un-vsed to the melting moode, / Drops teares as faſt as the Arabian Trees / Their Medicinable gumme."
— 1603, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, act V, scene ii, page 338:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
Since no guests showed up, all the fancy dinner plates remained completely ____.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The guest room has remained ____ for several weeks, as we have not had any visitors stay with us recently today.