routine

Pluralroutines

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A course of action that is followed regularly; a standard procedure or way of doing things.

   After the move, it took weeks to settle into a new routine.

   The clinic follows a strict routine for admitting and discharging patients.

   Similarhabit, ritual

   Note

   Borrowed whole from French, the word reads in English as route plus -ine, so a regular course of action is, at bottom, a well-traveled road. It works both as a count noun (a new morning routine) and as a mass noun (as a matter of routine). Habit and wont name what a person tends to do, and ritual adds a sense of ceremony. Routine stresses the fixed order of the steps.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   A set of normal procedures, often performed mechanically and without much conscious thought.

   Screening bags at the airport had settled into mindless routine for the staff.

   He handled the paperwork as a matter of routine, stamping each form without reading it.

   Similarrut

   Note

   Here the regularity has hardened into something done without thought, which is why its closest synonym is rut. The line between this and the neutral "standard procedure" sense is thin. George A. Birmingham's Gossamer (1915) speaks of settling down to "the ordinary routine of life at sea" as a relief, while "one big routine" is a complaint. Context decides whether the word is weary or comforting.

3. 3
   adjective

   Happening or performed regularly as a matter of habit; forming part of an established pattern.

   She kept up her routine morning swim even while traveling.

   The committee's routine monthly meetings rarely lasted more than an hour.

   Similarregular, habitual, usual, customary

   Oppositeirregular, occasional

4. 4
   adjective

   Done or carried out according to an established procedure rather than for any special reason.

   The inspection was strictly routine, required of every restaurant once a year.

   Border agents asked the routine questions about the purpose of her trip.

   Similarstandard, regular, usual, normal, customary

   Oppositespecial, unusual, exceptional

5. 5
   adjective

   Ordinary and unremarkable, with nothing to distinguish it from all the others of its kind.

   Critics dismissed the album as routine, competent but never surprising.

   What began as a routine flight turned dramatic when the storm rolled in.

   Similarordinary, unremarkable, uneventful, mundane, humdrum

   Oppositeextraordinary, remarkable, unusual

   Note

   Sports reporting leans on this sense. A routine victory is one won comfortably and without drama, as in David Ornstein's 2011 BBC Sport report of Stoke beating Maccabi Tel-Aviv. Elsewhere the word is mildly dismissive, as when an album is called routine. It compares with more and most (a more routine win), never with -er or -est.

6. 6
   nouncountable

   A set piece of an entertainer's act, practiced in advance and performed the same way each time.

   The magician saved his most famous routine for the end of the show.

   The duo's comedy routines relied on quick back-and-forth timing.

   Similaract, number, bit

7. 7
   nouncountable

   A set of instructions within a program designed to perform a specific task, also called a subroutine.

   The error came from a routine that handles file uploads.

   Developers reuse common routines instead of writing the same code twice.

   Similarfunction, procedure, subroutine

   Note

   Programmers use the word for a self-contained block of instructions that other parts of a program can call to do one job. The vocabulary shifts with the language being written, so subroutine, procedure and function can all name the same idea. When reading code or documentation, treat these terms as near-equivalents unless the language draws a distinction between them.

8. 8
   nouncountable

   A performance of a planned sequence of gymnastic movements on one of the apparatus.

   Her beam routine earned the highest score of the night.

   Judges compare routines from every competitor before posting the final scores.

   Note

   In competition the word is tied to equipment. Each routine is composed for a single apparatus, so a gymnast performs a beam routine rather than one routine across the whole event. Judges weigh both the difficulty of the elements and the quality of their execution. Its formal synonym, composition, stresses what it shares with the entertainer's set piece: the sequence is choreographed in advance.

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