desuetude

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Certainly we must now be set on a path to mental decay and desuetude.

From Washington Post • Apr. 28, 2023

By the fourth century, the gardens had apparently fallen into desuetude, and statuary in the abandoned pavilions was broken into pieces to build the foundations of a series of spas.

From New York Times • Jan. 12, 2021

A very few people, not appearing to be up to much, sat far apart at desks in a dimly lighted panorama of desuetude.

From The New Yorker • Sep. 2, 2018

Meaning when you have a statute that hasn't been enforced in 215 years, there's a concept in the law called desuetude.

From Slate • Dec. 4, 2017

The worst of such predicaments is, my dear Charles, that when one does write, everything one has, at a thousand scattered moments, previously wanted to say, seems to have dried up with desuetude and neglect.

From The Letters of Henry James (volume I) by James, Henry