user

Etymology

From Middle English usere, equivalent to use + -er. Cognate with Scots usar, uiser (“user”).

noun

1. One who uses or makes use of something, a consumer/client or an express or implied licensee (free user) or a trespasser.
   [Rural solar plant] schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark, look for specks of light in the villages. 2013-07-20, “Out of the gloom”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845
   2019, The Highway Code (United Kingdom) Road Users Requiring Extra Care The most vulnerable road users are pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and horse riders. It is particularly important to be aware of children, older and disabled people, and learner and inexperienced drivers and riders. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/road-users-requiring-extra-care-204-to-225
2. A person who uses drugs, especially illegal drugs.
3. (computing) A person who uses a computer or a computing network, especially a person who has received a user account.
4. (derogatory) An exploiter, an abuser (a person who "uses" people, that is treats and regards people unfairly, selfishly and/or unethically).
5. (law, dated) In land law, meaning either 1. or 2. above or use. Usually in singular form to mean use wherever there is assiduous re-use of precedents and aloof textbooks verbatim.
   2012, R. (Stephen Malpass) v Durham County Council, [2012] EWHC 1934 (Admin) http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2012/1934.html As to evidence of user... As to quality of user (i.e. was use by the public "as of right"), the inspector found that the grass over the whole of the application land has been regularly cut... ...which the inspector did not find sufficient of itself to render user permissive. Moreover, the defendant could not, the inspector advised, rely on communication to users that access to the land was regulated. Deferment to users of the organised pitches...