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Glite Dictionary
📦 Not new 😞 Taken advantage 🚗 Secondhand
used

used

1.0
Owned by someone else before
  • adjective
  • /juːzd/
translation icon : de segunda mano
  • The used textbooks were much cheaper than new ones for the class.

Examples

  • My used van had a Texas tag and enough Texas air-conditioning to keep chocolate from melting in any temperature the Great Lakes region was likely to experience.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • She asked, "What on earth would justify paying that much for a USED vehicle?"

    Blog text (2)

  • I don't get my cut for used books now.

  • Cheap metal bits and pieces used in jewellery.

  • This spring is a, it's a spring which is used for as a spacer.

  • Who's what's the most used app on your phone?

  • Like, we probably had the most used trampoline in Brighton.

  • I found a great deal on a used coffee table at the thrift store.

  • He decided to buy a used bicycle instead of a new one to save money.

Synonyms

second hand
vsused
19 2.2

Not new, bought from someone who owned it before

focuses on prior ownership of an item, not the purchase act
secondhand
vsused
9 2.5

Owned and used before by someone else

is about having been owned before rather than being new

Antonyms

new
∞ 1.0

In original condition and never used before

Idioms

used to
∞ 2.3

Comfortable with something because you do it often

ain't what it used to be
  • Informal
7 9.8

Not as good or impressive as it was before

Compounds

used car
52 1.0

A car that someone else owned before and is not new

used-car lot
  • US
7 2.8

An open area where a dealer shows and sells cars that other people owned

How New

brand-new
321 1.2
used
1.0
secondhand
9 2.5
worn
4 2.1
decrepit
9 6.6

Surface Forms

used positive

Morphology

used = use (transparent) = use + ed

Formed from the verb 'use' with the past-participle suffix '-ed', so learners who know 'use' can infer 'used' meaning previously employed or secondhand.

Etymology

Used comes from the past form of the verb use, which means 'to make use of'. So a used item is one that someone else has already made use of, in other words 'secondhand'.