A Dictionary of Cont..

usual 534
here?, he usen’t to drink, and use& you to like
her?. The negative statement he used not to
drink is acceptable in both countries.
Used to may follow had, as in where they had
used to be, but this is an extremely literary
construction. In everyday speech we say merely
where they used to be. Used to cannot follow
a subjunctive auxiliary. Sentences such as Z
couldn’t used to are sometimes heard but are
not considered acceptable.
usual; customary; habitual. That is usual which
occurs more often than not, which is to be expected,
is the normal state of affairs (Business as
usual during alterations. The poor, there as elsewhere,
live in their usual misery). That is customary
which occurs in the larger part of all
cases observed, which is consonant with the custom
or use or practice of an individual or,
especially, a community. (Zt was customary
among country folk then to proportion the blessing
to the food, and Sunday dinner, the heaviest
and best meal of the week, was always prefaced
with an unusually long grace. ‘Tis not alone my
inky cloak, good mother,/ Nor customary suits
of solemn black). And as a habit is more deeply
ingrained than a custom, so habitual goes beyond
customary (as customary goes beyond
usual) in indicating a uniform and unbroken
vacant. See empty.
vacation; holiday. Although the English recognize
vacation as a holiday, they no longer use the
word much in this sense, confining it to those
periods during which the activities of the law
courts, universities, and schools are suspended.
In the United States the word means any freedom
from release of duty, business, or activity,
a holiday period (Visitors to Oregon have a wide
choice of attractions from which to supplement
sight-seeing and other vacation activities in Oregon’s
cool, green vacationlands. Z think 1’11 take
a vacation this weekend; I’m fed up with always
taking work home from the ofice). In this, as is
often the case, the American usage is the older
English usage.
For vacation the English would say holiday;
for those on vacation, holiday-makers; and for
the verb to vacation, to take a holiday (Zt took
place about ten years ago when Z was vacationing
at Mackinac Island. Z was taking my holiday
at Margate when Ethel’s husband died). Holiday,
in American usage, is pretty much confined
to some one specific day fixed by law or custom
on which ordinary business is suspended or to a
special dav off from school (Washineton’s birth-
&v has been declared a holiday. *he teachers
had their annual convention and the kids got a
adherence to some act, or a response so deeply
ingrained as to be beyond conscious control and
a part of the character (The habitual frown that
darkened his countenance had so come to be
considered his ordinary expression that this unexpected
smile, cracked grimace as it was, tended
more to alarm than to warm the onlookers. The
habitual tendency of all people to turn on their
former idols . . .).
usual; usually. The form usually is required immediately
before or after a verb, as in he spoke
more than he usually does, he spoke more than
he does usually, and immediately before an adjective,
as in he is usually quiet, he was more
than usually quiet. In any other position the
form usual is required, as in he spoke more than
usual and he was more quiet than usual. The
form usual may be used to qualify a noun, as in
his usual reticence.
utilize. See use.
utter. In addition to its common, everyday meaning
of giving audible expression to, the verb to
utter has several specialized legal meanings that
sometimes startle the ordinary reader. To utter a
libel is to publish it, to make it publicly known
by any means. To utter forged documents or
counterfeit money is to put them into circulation.
utter; utmost. See out.
holiday). In this second meaning, day off would
probably be more common.
vacuity; vacuous; vacuousness. Vacuity and vacuousness
are nouns referring to emptiness. Vacuous
is the adjective. It means empty, without
contents. Its connotation of “vacuum” makes it
a stronger word than empty. Used figuratively,
and it is commonly used only figuratively, it
means empty of ideas or intelligence, completely
empty-as empty as a vacuum is of air; stupidly
vacant; showing mental vacancy (I could tell
from the vacuous look on his face that we were
wasting time asking him questions). Vacuity is
the usual noun to describe the state of being
vacuous or empty; absence of contents; emptiness;
an empty space; a vacuum; absence or
lack of something specified; vacancy of mind,
thought; absence of idea or intelligence; inanity
(The vacuity of these conversations is depressing);
something inane or senselessly stupid.
Vacuousness is the noun commonly used to describe
a face or an expression which is vacuous
(From the vacuousness of their expressions he
could tell that he was not in the presence of
intellectual giants).
vacuum. The plural is vacuums or vacua.
valise in England is now used only in a military
context to describe a soldier’s knapsack; specifi-