Definition of "disuse"

disuse

/dɪsˈjuːs/

noun
uncountable
1. The state of not being used; neglect.
verb
third-person singular simple present disuses, present participle disusing, simple past and past participle disused
1. (transitive) To cease the use of.
  Quotations
  Whether in process of time Shakspeare grew weary of the bondage of rhyme, or whether he became convinced of its impropriety in a dramatick dialogue, his neglect of rhyming (for he never wholly disused it) seems to have been gradual.
  1790, Edmond Malone, The Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare‎, London: H. Baldwin, Volume I, p. 194, footnote
  The author does not fail to recommend the practice, adopted, it is said, by many thousands in the kingdom, of disusing the West India produce.
  1792, Cruelty the natural and inseparable Consequence of Slavery, preached March 11, 1792, at Hemel-Hempstead, Herts. By John Liddon, in The Monthly Review, May to August, Volume VIII, p. 238
2. (transitive, archaic) To disaccustom.
  Quotations
  Whether a rotten state, and hope of gaine,Or to disuse mee from the queasie paineOf being belov'd, and loving, or the thirstOf honour, or faire death, out pusht mee first,I lose my end: for here as well as IA desperate may live, and a coward die.
  1597, John Donne, The Calm‎, lines 39–44