From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishbe in usebe in useUSE somethinga machine, place etc that is in use is being used Electric vehicles built in 1920 were still in use in the 1950s. → use
Examples from the Corpus
be in use• The actual strength of each type very rarely reflected this establishment - at one stage no less than forty B.2s were in use!• They want to know whether the new umbrella qualification could be in use as early as 2001.• Once a suitable disinfectant is in use resistance will not occur if it is used correctly.• Cut-Through Lane was in use as a tank testing ground by the Ordnance Depot at Chilwell and everything was on wartime footing.• All of the washing machines are in use.• The mine was in use for 60 years, but played out and shut down in 1943.• All the photocopiers are in use. Could you come back later?• The meeting room is in use at the moment, so we'll have to go somewhere else.• With the advent of the new national curriculum, these materials should be in use in every science classroom.• But how were they to know the code they were writing in 1975 would still be in use 25 years later?• A number of other variations are in use. 