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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Recent Examples of desuetude
Instead of working alone, Mahama shares his process through these organizations, offering Ghana’s people the chance to rebuild after a period of desuetude.
—
Edna Bonhomme, Artforum, 1 Oct. 2025
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
Edna Bonhomme, Artforum, 1 Oct. 2025
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
-
Castellanos Triminio faces charges of strong-arm robbery, child neglect, false imprisonment, and battery by strangulation.—
February 23,
CBS News,
23 Feb. 2026
-
After the circus moved on, Black South African soccer remained mired in neglect, while cricket and rugby continued to thrive.—
Ian Buruma,
New Yorker,
23 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Heart muscles atrophy, or weaken from disuse, in adults who spend prolonged times in the weightlessness of space.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
20 Feb. 2026
-
And does a particular level of disuse have to be reached for a word to be dropped into the lexical dustbin?—
Louis Menand,
New Yorker,
22 Dec. 2025
Noun
-
And some lawmakers are having conversations about responsibility, and who should be held liable in cases of abandonment and death.—
Mary Beth Skylis,
Outside,
26 Feb. 2026
-
And always underneath all the resentment and abandonment is a love there.—
Max Gao,
HollywoodReporter,
25 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Desuetude.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/desuetude. Accessed 28 Feb. 2026.
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