as in neglect
lack of use despite the long years of desuetude, the old manual typewriter seemed to work just fine

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of desuetude New England travel writer and physician Jonathan Brown visited Sans-Souci in the 1830s, long after the king’s suicide in 1820, when the palace had been completely pillaged and had fallen into utter desuetude. Marlene Daut, Harper's BAZAAR, 8 Oct. 2021 Some passengers, however, seem to have moved beyond our technological limitations to a conceptual world where human drivers have fallen into desuetude. Peter Jakubowicz, Wired, 4 Sep. 2021 This Customs guidance has gone entirely unenforced for decades, but it was reissued — perhaps to keep it from desuetude — by the Obama administration in its final years. Eugene Kontorovich, Washington Post, 17 July 2017 Glenn Close returns to the role of Norma Desmond in the 1993 Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, based on Billy Wilder’s classic portrait of Hollywood desuetude. The New Yorker, 9 Feb. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for desuetude
Noun
  • Natalia was evicted from the apartment a year later and the couple was hit with accusations of abandonment and several charges related to the neglect of a dependent.
    Amaris Encinas, USA TODAY, 21 Feb. 2025
  • The county billed him $24K for the neglect of the previous owner.
    Wesley Alden, Orlando Sentinel, 19 Feb. 2025
Noun
  • By around 2010, the Cow Palace aged and fell into a state of financial disarray and physical disuse.
    Daniel Brown, The Athletic, 14 Feb. 2025
  • And devotion, for the male anglerfish, means gripping on with his teeth to her underside until their bodies fuse together, his eyes fall into disuse, and their bloodstreams become one.
    Carlyn Kranking, Smithsonian Magazine, 31 Dec. 2024
Noun
  • From a geostrategic perspective, Trump’s abandonment of the FCPA is a disastrous decision.
    Richard Nephew, Foreign Affairs, 24 Feb. 2025
  • This second abandonment compounds the damage to U.S. credibility and standing caused by the first.
    Bloomberg Opinion, Twin Cities, 21 Feb. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Desuetude.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/desuetude. Accessed 3 Mar. 2025.

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