condition

Less common meanings

5. 5
   shape behaviorverbtransitive

   To shape someone's behavior so that they act or react in a particular way.

   Constant praise conditioned the team to expect rewards for every small task.

   Schools can condition students to raise their hands before speaking.

   UsageOften passive with to + verb: children were conditioned to obey.

   Similartrain, teach, accustom, program, habituate

   Note

   Classical conditioning links stimuli so that one evokes a learned response; operant conditioning shapes behavior through its consequences.

6. 6
   treat (hair)verbtransitive

   To treat something, especially hair, with conditioner to improve its texture and softness.

   He conditioned the leather seats to stop them from cracking.

   Stylists recommend that you condition your hair at least twice a week.

   UsageOften after wash: wash and condition your hair.

   Similarmoisturize, treat, soften, nourish

   Note

   Hair is the everyday object, but the verb covers any treatment that puts a surface into better working order. Railway Magazine in 1956 described conditioning rails with a special neutralizing chemical to stop locomotives slipping, after washing them with detergent had only helped. The product used on hair takes its name, conditioner, from this sense. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

   • Railway Magazine reported in 1956 that chemical conditioning eliminated locomotive slipping after detergent washing had produced only an improvement. en.wiktionary.org
   • The hair-product name conditioner derives from condition in the sense of improving something's condition. en.wiktionary.org
7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To train or prepare a person, animal, or material through repeated exercise or gradual exposure so it becomes fit or adjusted.

   Trainers condition their fighters with months of intense physical work.

   The program is designed to condition new recruits for harsh field environments.

   UsageOften condition someone or something for a task: recruits conditioned for harsh field work.

   Similartrain, prepare, toughen, accustom, acclimatize

8. 8
   make dependentverbtransitive

   To make something dependent on a condition being fulfilled first; to make it conditional.

   The university conditioned the offer on her final exam results.

   Investors will condition further funding on clear progress this quarter.

   Usagecondition something on (or upon) something else: conditioned the offer on her results.

   Similarpredicate, base

9. 9
   limitverbtransitive

   To place conditions or limitations on something, so that it can go only as far as they allow.

   Steep hillsides and thin soil condition what farmers in the valley can grow.

   The tides conditioned every landing the navy attempted along that rocky coast.

   Similardetermine, govern, limit, constrain, dictate

   Note

   Here the subject is often a natural force rather than a person. In Alfred Tennyson's "The Golden Year" (1846), the seas that gain upon the shore have "ebb and flow conditioning their march." The verb sets the limits within which something moves. It is not imposing terms on someone, which is what making something conditional does. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

   • Alfred Tennyson wrote "The Golden Year", which contains the quoted description of the seas. gutenberg.org
   • The poem was first published in 1846, in the fourth edition of Poems. en.wikisource.org
10. 10
    logicnouncountable

    In logic, a clause or phrase used by a conditional statement, which may hold as either true or false.

    The program runs only when the condition evaluates to true.

    The loop keeps repeating until its condition becomes false.

11. 11
    noundatedcountable or uncountable

    The social or economic standing of a person, including their rank or class.

    Note

    A usage now dated, at home in older fiction and history: a man of his condition, a person of humble condition. The phrase marks where someone stands in the social order, where a modern writer would say class or rank. Read it in period prose without surprise. In current writing it sounds deliberately old-fashioned, and it can easily be misread as a remark about a person's state of health.

12. 12
    verbdated

    In US colleges, to require a student to pass a further examination or complete extra study in order to remain enrolled.
13. 13
    verbarchaic

    To agree to or set down something as a formal term of a contract or bargain.

    [P]ay me back my credit, / And I'll condition wi'ye.

    1633, John Fletcher, James Shirley
14. 14
    verb

    To test or assay a material, especially silk, to determine the proportion of moisture it contains.
15. 15
    verb

    In philosophy, to impose on an object the relations or framework without which it could not be known or thought about.