from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. A recurrent, often unconscious pattern of behavior that is acquired through frequent repetition.
- n. An established disposition of the mind or character.
- n. Customary manner or practice: a person of ascetic habits.
- n. An addiction, especially to a narcotic drug.
- n. Physical constitution.
- n. Characteristic appearance, form, or manner of growth, especially of a plant or crystal.
- n. A distinctive dress or costume, especially of a religious order.
- n. A riding habit.
- transitive v. To clothe; dress.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. An action done on a regular basis.
- n. An action performed repeatedly and automatically, usually without awareness.
- n. A long piece of clothing worn by monks and nuns.
- n. A piece of clothing worn uniformly for a specific activity.
- n. Customary manner of dress.
- n. An addiction.
- v. To clothe.
- v. To inhabit.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. The usual condition or state of a person or thing, either natural or acquired, regarded as something had, possessed, and firmly retained; ; esp., physical temperament or constitution.
- n. The general appearance and manner of life of a living organism.
- n. Fixed or established custom; ordinary course of conduct; practice; usage; hence, prominently, the involuntary tendency or aptitude to perform certain actions which is acquired by their frequent repetition; ; also, peculiar ways of acting; characteristic forms of behavior.
- n. Outward appearance; attire; dress; hence, a garment; esp., a closely fitting garment or dress worn by ladies.
- n. The distinctive clothing worn commonly by nuns or monks.
- transitive v. To inhabit.
- transitive v. To dress; to clothe; to array.
- transitive v. To accustom; to habituate.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To dwell; abide; reside.
- 1. To dwell in; inhabit.
- To fix by custom; accustom; habituate.
- To dress; clothe; array.
- n. A usual or characteristic state or condition; natural condition, attitude, appearance, or development; customary mode of being.
- n. A usual or customary mode of action; particularly, a mode of action so established by use as to be entirely natural, involuntary, instinctive, unconscious, uncontrollable, etc.: used especially of the action, whether physical, mental, or moral, of living beings, but also, by extension, of that of inanimate things; hence, in general, custom; usage; also, a natural or more generally an acquired proclivity, disposition, or tendency to act in a certain way.
- n. In logic, a character which can be separated from its subject, without the destruction of the latter.
- n. External dress; particularly, the costume or dress regularly worn, or appropriate for a particular occasion, use, or vocation.
- n. A costume worn by women when riding on horseback; a riding-habit.
- n. The grade marked by this dress. Entering this grade involves almost entire seclusion from earthly things, and constant devotion to religious exercises. Most Oriental monks do not assume the great habit except at the approach of death, the greater number being vowed to the little habit only.
- n. In Scotland, general report: as, by habit and repute a thief.
- n. The grade marked by this dress. Those who wish to enter this grade have first to pass through the rhasophoria or novitiate. See great habit.
- n. In petrography, the general appearance of a rock given by the texture and the mode, that is, the mineral composition. Rocks may have the same habit and not agree closely in composition.
- n. A small piece of linen attached to a woman's collar at the back, designed to go under the neck of the dress and keep the collar in place.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. an established custom
- n. attire that is typically worn by a horseback rider (especially a woman's attire)
- n. the general form or mode of growth (especially of a plant or crystal)
- v. put a habit on
- n. excessive use of drugs
- n. a distinctive attire worn by a member of a religious order
- n. (psychology) an automatic pattern of behavior in reaction to a specific situation; may be inherited or acquired through frequent repetition
When work has become a habit, the intellectual level rises rapidly, and organized order causes good conduct to become a _habit_.
In general, we may say that habit bears a twofold relation to attention: on the one hand, _facile attention shows the reign of habit_.
Addiction is a tricky thing, and the first thing I believe our friend Sid would recommend is to explore whether what you are calling a habit is an addiction.
And a habit is all they can reasonably hope for -- the absolute value of both gifts was negligible, according to one Slate blogger, who points out that the $10,000 senior gift at Dartmouth makes up .001 percent of the money lost by Dartmouth in the recession, and Cornell's $80,000 a mere .006 percent of the endowment lost in 2009.
This habit is a good one for your body in many ways, as it washes out your system, and is needed in order to maintain a healthy diet and a clear, healthy complexion.
Character is nothing more than the sum and co-ordination of those mechanisms which we call habit and which are formed on the basis of the inherited and instinctive tendencies and dispositions which we share in so large a measure with the lower animals.
The order and the habit are the same with the Hotel Dieu, except that to the habit is added the cross, generally worn in Europe by canonesses only: a distinction procur'd for them by their founder, St. Vallier, the second bishop of Quebec.
The philosopher attajneci to what he called a habit of virtue; and so may the Christian.
Some of the way lots of peoples 'thinking got made a habit, is that back in the beginning of radio (~ 1925) broadcasts were free and funded by public-money (tax revenues) appropriation by Congress.
A common bad habit is to start at the beginning, even if nothing really compelling happens there.