a. Now rare. Also 5–6 vtyle, 6 vtyll, utyle, utille. [a. OF. (F.) utile (13th c.), ad. L. ūtilis, f. ūtī to use. Cf. It. utile, and OF., Pr., Sp., Pg. util.] Useful, profitable, advantageous. Also const. to, unto.
1484. Caxton, Fables of Æsop, I. x. Theyre felauship [sc. of evil folk] is not good ne vtyle.
1518. H. Watson, Hist. Oliver of Castile (Roxb.), B 4. To whome it semeth good and vtyll for the prosperyte of bothe partyes.
c. 1532. Du Wes, Introd. Fr., in Palsgr., 1072. Of all meates the best and most utille to the body of man is of capons.
1578. Banister, Hist. Man, V. 74. The most pure and vtile substaunce.
1653. H. Cogan, trans. Pinto’s Trav., lxx. 284. To shew that the conquest thereof would have been far more utile unto us.
1678. Gale, Crt. Gentiles, IV. III. 5. Means utile and conducible to the promoting of Divine glorie.
1839. J. Rogers, Antipopopr., i. 69. An order that He has given … to employ our energy in the utile pursuit of following.
1894. Advance (Chicago), 24 May. There is the cost value…. There is the productive or utile value.
absol. 1685. Cotton, trans. Montaigne (1711), III. 2. Wherein he quitted the utile for the honest.
