Usage note: “utilize” =/= “use” If I were to dig holes in the ground with a tractor and PTO auger, then that would be a case of USING the auger (that is, for its intended purpose). If I were to effectively and efficiently bore a hole in a tree with it, I would be UTILIZING it (for a purpose for which it was not designed or intended). BTW, attempting to effectively and efficiently bore a hole in a tree with a tractor-powered auger would seem a bit. . . silly, at best, and probably doomed to failure. _Utilizing things is a hacker’s gig.
In my experience, people who misuse “utilize” when they describe an action to which “use” applies are usually subliterate, pretentious twats. (YMMV, of course.) Such persons’ misuse is creeping slowly, a bit at a time, into dictionaries, though, further impoverishing English by blurring clear and very useful distinctions, as has already been done with more and more words as the democratic subliteracy of the Internet accelerates pejoration and even outright destruction of useful meanings. (Simple example of destruction of meaning is the most prominent use nowadays of the word invented by Richard Dawkins to refer to “a parallel between the way that genetic information propagates in the gene pool and the way that cultural information is transmitted through a culture.” Nowadays, most usage of the word refers to graphics with pithy captions attempting to make the leap to widespread cultural transmission. *cough* #ICanHazCheeseburger *cough*)
(Note: utilize can also refer to effective and efficient uptake of a nutrient by a biological entity. In fact, that is its best, clearest use.)