Meanings
- Skills or knowledge that are seldom applied are likely to be lost with time.
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.
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., →ISBN, page 262 - Property and privileges will be lost if they are not utilized.
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.
2011, Marq De Villiers, Our Way Out: Principles for a Post-Apocalyptic World, McClelland & Stewart, →ISBN, page 310
Synonyms & antonyms
phraseOne's physical fitness will gradually decline if one does not exercise regularly.
Cite this entry
use it or lose it. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/use%20it%20or%20lose%20it
“use it or lose it.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/use%20it%20or%20lose%20it. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “use it or lose it,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/use%20it%20or%20lose%20it.
Source: use it or lose it on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.