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IN USE
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
(of facilities such as telephones or lavatories) unavailable for use by anyone else or indicating unavailability; ('engaged' is a British term for a busy telephone line)
Example:
kept getting a busy signal
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Similar:
occupied (held or filled or in use)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Currently being used
Example:
robots are in use throughout industry
Classified under:
Similar:
used (employed in accomplishing something)
Context examples:
I hear some of our sea Yahoos find fault with my sea-language, as not proper in many parts, nor now in use.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
About two-thirds of this total — 6.3 billion tonnes — has been discarded as waste, while 2.6 billion tonnes is still in use, according to a study published in 2017 in Science Advances.
(Scientists develop biodegradable plastic from cassava starch, SciDev.Net)
The African green monkey has been in use in scientific research since the 1950s and its tissues are used to produce vaccines for polio and smallpox.
(African Green Monkey, NCI Thesaurus)
It is in use.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Examples of these devices include Hickman catheters, which require clamps to make sure the valve is closed, and Groshong catheters, which have a valve that opens as fluid is withdrawn or infused and remains closed when not in use.
(Central venous access catheter, NCI Dictionary)
Although some of the CGS units remain in use (e.g. by scientists working in small subject contexts) for a variety of purposes, they are being replaced gradually by the SI units selected from the MKS system.
(CGS System, NCI Thesaurus)
When the chair was not in use, it reposed on top of the bed, though sometimes he sat on the chair when cooking, reading a book while the water boiled, and even becoming skilful enough to manage a paragraph or two while steak was frying.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
