habit
Pluralhabits
Pluralhabits
Formshabits, habiting, habited
- 1An action repeated so often that it becomes automatic, usually done without conscious thought.
Checking his phone first thing each morning had become an unconscious habit.
Years of training turned careful hand-washing into an automatic habit for the nurses.
Similarreflex, routine, practice, tendency
Note
Here the repetition has run on until thought drops out. The fixed phrase is by force of habit, used uncountably, for something done without choosing to, like dressing for work on a holiday. Set it beside the deliberate, regular routine: that kind of habit is kept or dropped by decision, while this kind is usually noticed only after the fact.
- 2An action carried out on a regular basis, as a matter of routine.
Taking a long walk after dinner is a habit she has kept for decades.
Many writers have a habit of working in the early morning hours.
Note
Custom in its everyday form, and the oldest layer of the word: Latin habitus, from habeō "I have, hold, keep", a word that also meant bearing and dress. It displaced native Old English þēaw. Use it with a possessive (a habit of mine) or with of plus -ing (a habit of rising early). In the plural it can sum up a whole way of living, as in Washington Irving's "a man of very shy, retired habits."
- 3A persistent dependence on something, especially a drug; an addiction.
Treatment helped him overcome a heroin habit he had fought for years.
Her gambling habit had drained the family's savings.
Similaraddiction, dependence, dependency
Note
Dependence spoken of indirectly, where the substance can go unsaid: when a Chumbawamba singer sings of picking one up, no drug needs naming. When it is named, it comes before the noun as a modifier, often with a quantity: a heroin habit, a 10-cigar habit. The verb that goes with it is kick, and to kick the habit is to quit.
- 4A long garment worn by monks and nuns as part of their religious order.
The young monk received his habit during the ceremony.
She exchanged her ordinary clothes for the convent's plain habit.
Similarrobe
- 5An outfit worn for a particular activity, such as horseback riding; a uniform.
The equestrian arrived in a tailored riding habit and polished boots.
The fox-hunters gathered at dawn, each in a scarlet hunting habit.
Similaroutfit, attire, costume, uniform, dress
Note
Most often met in the compound riding habit, the tailored outfit for horseback. Alison Matthews David's Fashion Victims (2015) describes sidesaddle riding habits as prestigious sportswear for the equestrian pursuits of the truly wealthy. That is a reminder that the garment signaled social standing as well as practical purpose. It counts like any noun: the team's new riding habits.
- 6The characteristic form of growth and overall appearance of a plant or crystal.
Botanists described the shrub's spreading habit and dense foliage.
Quartz commonly shows a hexagonal prismatic habit.
Note
A naturalist's word for characteristic shape. Botanists speak of a plant's habit, such as spreading or upright, to describe how the plant grows as a whole rather than any single part. Mineralogists use it for the external form a crystal typically takes, such as prismatic. In both fields it names the usual shape, so a single specimen can depart from its typical habit.
- 7To dress someone or provide them with clothing.
Wardrobe assistants habit the cast in period costume before each performance.
The seamstress habited the bridal party in matching gowns.
Similargarb
Note
A clothing verb that takes a person as its object, often oneself. Harriet W. Daly in 1887 had "much to do to habit myself for civilized life again." Its past tense and past participle are both habited (the cast were habited in period dress). Garb and habilitate are its near-synonyms.
Less common meanings
- 8A person's outward appearance, manner of dress, or attire.
His travel-worn habit betrayed how long he had been on the road.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy.
c. 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”Note
The older, broader sense of dress, now archaic and at home in Elizabethan drama: Shakespeare's Hamlet advises "Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy." Watch the phrase in the habit of. When Defoe's Crusoe goes aboard "in the habit of a gentleman" (1719), he is dressed as one, not accustomed to being one. The modern reading of in the habit of doing something does not apply.
- 9To dwell in or occupy a place as one's home; to inhabit.
The hermits who habit these mountains rarely come down to the village.
Few people now habit the abandoned valley.
Note
A dwelling verb, now archaic, that comes straight from Latin habitāre, "to dwell, abide, keep," itself a frequentative of habeō, "I have, hold." Inhabit grew from the same Latin root and has taken over the job. In your own writing, use inhabit. When you meet habit in this sense, read it as period or deliberately old-fashioned diction.
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Practice
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Origins
From Middle English habit, from Latin habitus ('condition, bearing, state, appearance, dress'), from habeō ('I have, hold, keep'). It is distantly related to 'gift' and replaced the earlier Middle English abit (from Old French) as well as the native Old English þēaw.
From Middle English habiten, from Old French habiter, from Latin habitāre ('to dwell, abide, keep'), a frequentative of habeō ('I have, hold, keep').