Utilising

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The action of making effective use of various resources or techniques to accomplish tasks
2. Applying resources or tools effectively to accomplish a goal
3. Employing methods or assets in a practical manner to achieve results

Etymology: "Utilising" is the British spelling of "utilizing," and its history runs through a chain of borrowings with a surprisingly plain core. The root is Latin "ūtī," meaning "to use," which gave Latin "ūtilis," "useful." That adjective passed into Italian as "utile," and Italian formed the verb "utilizzare" from it. French then took the verb as "utiliser," and English borrowed it from French, first recorded around 1810. Notice that the English verb did not come straight from Latin. Its immediate source was a French verb built on an Italian verb built on a Latin adjective, so the word carries the sense of "making something useful" rather than simply "using" it. The "-ise" ending is the French verb-forming suffix, which is why the word is spelled "utilise" in British English and "utilize" in American usage.

Synonyms: using, employing, exploiting, applying, harnessing

Antonyms: wasting, squandering, misusing, neglecting, abandoning