accustomed

From accustom + -ed.

• IPA^(key): /əˈkʌs.təmd/

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• Hyphenation: ac‧cus‧tomed

accustomed (comparative more accustomed, superlative most accustomed)

1. Familiar with something through repeated experience; adapted to existing conditions. (of a person)

   I am not accustomed to walk(ing) long distances.

   She is getting more and more accustomed to the cold.

   • 1484, William Caxton (translator), The Book of the Subtyl Historyes and Fables of Esope, “The v fable is of the Foxe and of the busshe,”^[1]

     And ther fore men ought not to helpe them whiche ben acustomed to doo euylle

   • 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Henry Cripps, Partition 1, Section 2, Member 2, Subsection 3, p. 99,^[2]

     Such things as we haue beene long accustomed to, though they be evill in their owne nature; yet they are lesse offensiue.

   • 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter 14, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume III, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC:

     “Miss Bennet, do you know who I am? I have not been accustomed to such language as this.”

   • 1904, Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Missing Three-Quarter”, in The Return of Sherlock Holmes‎^[3], New York: McClure, Phillips & Co., published 1905, page 294:

     Young Overton’s face assumed the bothered look of the man who is more accustomed to using his muscles than his wits […]

   • 1920 April, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, “Chapter 2”, in This Side of Paradise, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, book I (The Romantic Egotist), page 64:

     None of the Victorian mothers—and most of the mothers were Victorian—had any idea how casually their daughters were accustomed to be kissed.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:accustomed.
2. Familiar through use; usual; customary. (of a thing, condition, activity, etc.)
   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v]:

     It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus washing her hands: I have known her continue in this a quarter of an hour.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter 9, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book IV, page 170:

     Molly had no sooner apparelled herself in her accustomed Rags, than her Sisters began to fall violently upon her […]

   • 1812, Lord Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto 2, Stanza 72, in The Poetical Works of Lord Byron, Boston: Cummings & Hilliard, 1814, Volume I, p. 249,^[4]

     Who now shall lead thy scatter’d children forth,

     And long-accustom’d bondage uncreate?

   • 1912, Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali, London: The India Society, Section 63, p. 37,^[5]

     I am uneasy at heart when I have to leave my accustomed shelter; I forget that there abides the old in the new, and that there also thou abidest.

   • 1983 April 30, Larry Goldsmith, “Yes, Loft Raided Again, Club Officers Charged”, in Gay Community News, page 1:

     The raid, directed as usual by vice squad Sgt. Edward McNelley and featuring the accustomed assortment of vice officers, […]

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:accustomed.
3. (archaic) Frequented by customers.
   • 1778, Tobias Smollett (translator), The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane by Alain-René Lesage, London: S. Crowder et al., Volume I, Chapter 7, p. 148,^[6]

     There I got a place on the same terms as at Segovia, in a well accustomed shop, much frequented on account of the neighbourhood of the church of Santa Cruz, and the Prince’s theatre […]

   • 1817, Seth William Stevenson^[7], Journal of a Tour through Part of France, Flanders, and Holland, Norwich: for the author, Chapter 21, p. 283,^[8]

     The pompous hotel is a lone cottage of very mean appearance, on the road side, and I will be sworn, was but an ill-accustomed Inn, until those renowned Generals justly gave it a licence.

When referring to a person, accustomed is only used predicatively; when referring to a thing, it is only used attributively. The use of the infinitive following accustomed (e.g. accustomed to do) is obsolete; in contemporary English, the gerund is used in this context (e.g. accustomed to doing).

• (familiar through repeated experience): habituated, inured, used, wonted

accustomed

1. simple past and past participle of accustom