"That's not a verb I recognise" is basically the default error message. You could type "xyuxxit" and it'd say it didn't recognise the verb.
Okay I just went through the game and the only verbs of use are...
Spoiler Below
take
drop
use
put
fill
drink
give
open
close
wear
read
Plus one more that you find out about by doing one of the others to a specific object. There's other actions you can DO, but these are the important ones.