Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Usage \Us"age\, n. [F. usage, LL. usaticum. See {Use}.]
   1. The act of using; mode of using or treating; treatment;
      conduct with respect to a person or a thing; as, good
      usage; ill usage; hard usage.

            My brother Is prisoner to the bishop here, at whose
            hands He hath good usage and great liberty. --Shak.

   2. Manners; conduct; behavior. [Obs.]

            A gentle nymph was found, Hight Astery, excelling
            all the crew In courteous usage.      --Spenser.

   3. Long-continued practice; customary mode of procedure;
      custom; habitual use; method. --Chaucer.

            It has now been, during many years, the grave and
            decorous usage of Parliaments to hear, in respectful
            silence, all expressions, acceptable or
            unacceptable, which are uttered from the throne.
                                                  --Macaulay.

   4. Customary use or employment, as of a word or phrase in a
      particular sense or signification.

   5. Experience. [Obs.]

            In eld [old age] is both wisdom and usage.
                                                  --Chaucer.

   Syn: Custom; use; habit.

   Usage: {Usage}, {Custom}. These words, as here compared,
          agree in expressing the idea of habitual practice; but
          a custom is not necessarily a usage. A custom may
          belong to many, or to a single individual. A usage
          properly belongs to the great body of a people. Hence,
          we speak of usage, not of custom, as the law of
          language. Again, a custom is merely that which has
          been often repeated, so as to have become, in a good
          degree, established. A usage must be both often
          repeated and of long standing. Hence, we speak of a
          ``hew custom,'' but not of a ``new usage.'' Thus,
          also, the ``customs of society'' is not so strong an
          expression as the ``usages of society.'' ``Custom, a
          greater power than nature, seldom fails to make them
          worship.'' --Locke. ``Of things once received and
          confirmed by use, long usage is a law sufficient.''
          --Hooker. In law, the words usage and custom are often
          used interchangeably, but the word custom also has a
          technical and restricted sense. See {Custom}, n., 3.

Source : WordNet®

usage
     n 1: the act of using; "he warned against the use of narcotic
          drugs"; "skilled in the utilization of computers" [syn:
          {use}, {utilization}, {utilisation}, {employment}, {exercise}]
     2: accepted or habitual practice [syn: {custom}, {usance}]