use in anger

English

Etymology

By extension, from fire in anger.

Verb

use in anger (third-person singular simple present uses in anger, present participle using in anger, simple past and past participle used in anger)

  1. (idiomatic) Used for its intended purpose, as opposed to e.g. practice or testing
    • 2007 March 29, The Rural Payments Agency and the implementation of the Single Payment Scheme: third report of session 2006-07, Vol. 2: Oral and written evidence, Volume 2‎[1], Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, →ISBN:
      The key element that has yet to be used in anger is the payment calculation function of the operating system.
    • 2020 June 10, anonymous author, AutoCAD LT Forum‎[2]:
      Just having a play before I use in anger
    • 2024 February 12, craigybagel, Rail UK Forums‎[3]:
      Outside of testing when first built I doubt those protections have ever actually been used in anger!
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.