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Literary notes about utilise (AI summary)

Writers often favour the term "utilise" to imply a purposeful and efficient employment of a resource, skill, or idea. In literature, it conveys a sense of deliberate strategy—whether in harnessing scientific principles or channeling mental faculties—adding a formal nuance to the narrative. Authors have used it to describe the practical application of natural materials or human ingenuity, as seen when harnessing brain functions for comparison [1] or capitalising on technological advances [2]. In more creative settings, "utilise" suggests turning natural or acquired advantages into tangible success, whether by deploying chess pieces for strategic gains [3][4][5] or by making innovative use of ideas and opportunities in life [6][7]. Even in reflective or historical narratives, the word carries the weight of intentionality, inviting readers to consider not only what is used, but how its employment transforms context and character, from converting natural resources [8] to cleverly mobilising social or intellectual capital [9].
  1. There, then, is the part of the brain which we want to utilise for the purpose of comparison, reduced by almost a third.
    — from The Races of Man: An Outline of Anthropology and Ethnography by Joseph Deniker
  2. En revanche le prêt des monographies en version imprimée n'a pas diminué depuis que l'OCDE utilise l'internet.
    — from Entretiens / Interviews / Entrevistas by Marie Lebert
  3. Also Black fears to keep his Rook in front of his two King's side Pawns which he may want to utilise later.
    — from Chess Fundamentals by José Raúl Capablanca
  4. It will take some time for White to bring his Rook and Knight into the fray, and Black can utilise it to obtain an advantage.
    — from Chess Fundamentals by José Raúl Capablanca
  5. He goes back with the King to support his K P, and thus be able to utilise his Rook.
    — from Chess Fundamentals by José Raúl Capablanca
  6. I have always valued good ideas, and have always tried to utilise them as far as possible.
    — from Best Russian Short Stories
  7. Our chance was to utilise the few moments after the relief of the watch, during which the sentinels were elsewhere engaged.
    — from My Life — Volume 1 by Richard Wagner
  8. His idea was to utilise the water thus raised to turn a water-wheel, and thus get effective power for working machinery in mills.
    — from Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, Taken from Original Sources by John Ashton
  9. 453.—In great matters we should not try so much to create opportunities as to utilise those that offer themselves.
    — from Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims by François duc de La Rochefoucauld

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