use to
verb/juːs.tu/ · /juːs.tə/
Etymology From use (“to perform habitually”) + to.
1
Infinitive, No past participle, No present participle, Present Infinitive or present tense form of used to: formerly (and habitually or repeatedly) be accustomed to.
Now uncommon outside certain constructions
- Did I use to wear that?
- I did not use to think her wanting in self possession, but she had not quite enough for the demands of yesterday.1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter IX, in Mansfield Park: […], volume III, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, pages 180–181:
2
No past participle, No present participle, Nonstandard, Proscribed Synonym of used to.
- I use to go every year, until I moved out of the area.
3
No past participle, No present participle Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see use, to.
- Drones have become so critical to battlefield success that at times they are used to take out other drones.2022 December 2, Isabelle Khurshudyan, Mary Ilyushina, Kostiantyn Khudov, “Russia and Ukraine are fighting the first full-scale drone war”, in Washington Post: