Definition of "desuetude" [des•ue•tude]

• A state of disuse or inactivity. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "One important point that was made concerned the degree to which England has over the last one thousand years had so much to do with The Low Countries (a phrase that is now in desuetude but which I use here as neutral code for both Flanders and The Netherlands), often to the mutual commercial benefit of each party and often in ways which enriched us culturally as well as economically."
• "But when Trent rolled around the practice was already in desuetude, and only one lonely instance was somewhat doubtfully recorded of Vatican I."
• "Supporters of libertine sexuality should be mindful that desuetude is a “living” concept also — even under the phantasmagorical plurality of Stevens’ waxing dreamy in Casey: It appears that opponents of radical libertinism need merely to achieve a generational duration for their own position and even Casey’s expansive conceptual sweep, sweeps back with just as much double-edged force:"