nonuse

See also: non-use

English

Alternative forms

• non-use

Etymology

From non- +‎ use.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /nɒnˈjuːs/

Noun

nonuse (countable and uncountable, plural nonuses)

1. The failure to make use of something. [from 16th c.]
   • 2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Penguin, published 2012, page 771:

     Sacred values, and the taboos that protect them, can be attached to resources that we decide are genuinely precious, such as identifiable lives, national borders, and the nonuse of chemical and nuclear weapons.