desuetude

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Laws that have fallen into desuetude are the most terrible of all laws, when the cause of the desuetude is the badness of the law And these are not groundless suppositions, and least of all in our country.

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Definitions (4)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. noun A state of disuse or inactivity.

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Examples (50)

  • The old belief that to translate Latin with facility was the true test of genius has fallen somewhat into desuetude, yet there are a few who still hold to the idea that to reason, imagine and invent are not the tests of a man's powers; he must conjugate, decline and derive. —  Little Journeys to the Homes of Eminent Painters
  • [26 Though the imprimatur in question has fallen into desuetude, it is, as we all know, the commonest of things for the introductions to works of science to occupy some often considerable part of their space with acknowledgments of assistance given by learned friends who have read the manuscript or the proofs and made suggestions with the object of improving the book or adding to its accuracy. —  Science and Morals and Other Essays
  • As these ceremonies gradually fell into desuetude, or were put down by clerical influence, it would be both natural and in accordance with policy that the cups devoted to the supposed rites should be transferred to the service of the Church. —  The Science of Fairy Tales An Inquiry into Fairy Mythology
  • Imposts fallen into desuetude, monopolies abandoned by Elizabeth, royal forests extended beyond the limits they had in feudal times, fines past all endurance, confiscations without end, imprisonments, tortures, and executions,--all marked these eleven years. —  A Modern History, From the Time of Luther to the Fall of Napoleon For the Use of Schools and Colleges
  • They would all fall into the decay of desuetude, just as has happened to the dynastic establishments among those peoples who have (passably) lost the spirit of dynastic aggression The modern industrial occupations, the modern technology, and that modern empirical science that runs so close to the frontiers of technology, all work at cross purposes with the received preconceptions of the nationalist order; and in a more pronounced degree they are at cross purposes with that dynastic order of preconceptions that converges on Imperial dominion. —  An Inquiry Into The Nature Of Peace And The Terms Of Its Perpetuation
 

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French désuétude, from Latin dēsuētūdō, from dēsuētus, past participle of dēsuēscere, to put out of use : dē-, de- + suēscere, to become accustomed; see s(w)e- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. = French désuétude = Italian desuetudine, dissuetudine, from Latin desuetudo, disuse, from desuescere, past participle desuetus, disuse: see desuete.
 

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/ˈdɛswətjud/
by American Heritage

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