"use it or lose it" meaning in English

See use it or lose it in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proverb

Head templates: {{head|en|proverb|head=}} use it or lose it, {{en-proverb}} use it or lose it
  1. Skills or knowledge that are seldom applied are likely to be lost with time.
    Sense id: en-use_it_or_lose_it-en-proverb-dYbCriMY
  2. Property and privileges will be lost if they are not utilized.
    Sense id: en-use_it_or_lose_it-en-proverb-QaJAHNLf

Download JSON data for use it or lose it meaning in English (1.7kB)

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "proverb",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "use it or lose it",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "use it or lose it",
      "name": "en-proverb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2011, Tim Wagle, Paul Theobald, “Connecting Communities and Schools: Accountability in the Post-NCLB Era”, in Paul R. Carr, Brad J. Porfilio, editors, The Phenomenon of Obama and the Agenda for Education: Can Hope Audaciously Trump Neoliberalism, Information Age Publishing Inc., page 262",
          "text": "Any piece of curriculum, devoid of an opportunity to wield it, suffers the same fate as unutilized Spanish instruction. The time-tested colloquialism is accurate: use it or lose it.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Skills or knowledge that are seldom applied are likely to be lost with time."
      ],
      "id": "en-use_it_or_lose_it-en-proverb-dYbCriMY",
      "links": [
        [
          "Skill",
          "skills"
        ],
        [
          "knowledge",
          "knowledge"
        ],
        [
          "applied",
          "applied"
        ],
        [
          "lost",
          "lost"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2011, Marq De Villiers, Our Way Out: Principles for a Post-Apocalyptic World, McClelland & Stewart, page 310",
          "text": "The legal rationale was simple: in much of the west, water rights operate under the \"use it or lose it\" principle. If you don't use the water, others had the right to appropriate it and use it themselves.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Property and privileges will be lost if they are not utilized."
      ],
      "id": "en-use_it_or_lose_it-en-proverb-QaJAHNLf",
      "links": [
        [
          "Property",
          "property"
        ],
        [
          "privileges",
          "privileges"
        ],
        [
          "lost",
          "lost"
        ],
        [
          "utilized",
          "utilized"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "use it or lose it"
}
{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "proverb",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "use it or lose it",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "use it or lose it",
      "name": "en-proverb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2011, Tim Wagle, Paul Theobald, “Connecting Communities and Schools: Accountability in the Post-NCLB Era”, in Paul R. Carr, Brad J. Porfilio, editors, The Phenomenon of Obama and the Agenda for Education: Can Hope Audaciously Trump Neoliberalism, Information Age Publishing Inc., page 262",
          "text": "Any piece of curriculum, devoid of an opportunity to wield it, suffers the same fate as unutilized Spanish instruction. The time-tested colloquialism is accurate: use it or lose it.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Skills or knowledge that are seldom applied are likely to be lost with time."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Skill",
          "skills"
        ],
        [
          "knowledge",
          "knowledge"
        ],
        [
          "applied",
          "applied"
        ],
        [
          "lost",
          "lost"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2011, Marq De Villiers, Our Way Out: Principles for a Post-Apocalyptic World, McClelland & Stewart, page 310",
          "text": "The legal rationale was simple: in much of the west, water rights operate under the \"use it or lose it\" principle. If you don't use the water, others had the right to appropriate it and use it themselves.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Property and privileges will be lost if they are not utilized."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Property",
          "property"
        ],
        [
          "privileges",
          "privileges"
        ],
        [
          "lost",
          "lost"
        ],
        [
          "utilized",
          "utilized"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "use it or lose it"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-03-12 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-03-01 using wiktextract (68773ab and 5f6ddbb). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.