accustom
English
Etymology
From Old French acoustumer, acustumer (Modern French accoutumer) corresponding to a (“to, toward”) + custom. More at custom, costume.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ə.ˈkʌs.təm/
Audio (US) (file)
Verb
accustom (third-person singular simple present accustoms, present participle accustoming, simple past and past participle accustomed)
- (transitive, often passive or reflexive) To make familiar by use; to cause to accept; to habituate, familiarize, or inure. [+ to (object)]
- If you visit Italy, you'll need to get accustomed to the slower pace of life and the fact that most shops won't be open at lunch time.
- ca. 1753, John Hawkesworth et al., Adventurer
- I shall always fear that he who accustoms himself to fraud in little things, wants only opportunity to practice it in greater.
- 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314:
- “[…] it is not fair of you to bring against mankind double weapons ! Dangerous enough you are as woman alone, without bringing to your aid those gifts of mind suited to problems which men have been accustomed to arrogate to themselves.”
- 1962 December, “Talking of Trains: Derailment at Lincoln”, in Modern Railways, page 375:
- Although it might be thought that drivers would naturally refer constantly to the speedometer, older drivers who come to diesel driving after years of steam experience without the help of speedometers, as well as those on steam engines which have been equipped with speedometers in recent years, have not accustomed themselves to the constant use of this instrument.
- (intransitive, obsolete) To be wont.
- 1609, Richard Carew, The Survey of Cornwall. […], new edition, London: […] B. Law, […]; Penzance, Cornwall: J. Hewett, published 1769, OCLC 752813518:
- all of them accustoming , once in the year , to take their kind of the fresh water
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- (intransitive, obsolete) To cohabit.
- 1670, John Milton, “The Second Book”, in The History of Britain, that Part Especially now Call’d England. […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for James Allestry, […] , OCLC 946735472, page 83:
- Much better do we Britans fulfill the work of Nature than you Romans; we with the beſt men accuſtom op'nly; you with the baſest commit private adulteries.
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Synonyms
- habituate, get used to, inure, exercise, train
Related terms
- custom, customary
Translations
to make familiar by use
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to be wont
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cohabit — see cohabit
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Noun
accustom (plural accustoms)
- (obsolete) Custom.
References
- accustom in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913