Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To accustom by frequent repetition or prolonged exposure.
- v. To cause physiological or psychological habituation, as to a drug.
- v. Psychology To experience habituation.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To accustom; make familiar by habit or customary experience.
- To settle as an inhabitant in a place.
- Synonyms 1. To inure, harden, familiarize (with).
- Inveterate by custom; formed by habit; habitual.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To make accustomed; to accustom; to familiarize.
- v. obsolete To settle as an inhabitant.
- adj. rare Firmly established by custom; formed by habit; habitual.
WordNet 3.0
- v. take or consume (regularly or habitually)
- v. make psychologically or physically used (to something)
Etymologies
- From Middle English, accustomed, from Late Latin habituātus, past participle of habituārī, to be in a condition, from Latin habitus, condition, habit; see habit. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Emotional rewards from novel stimuli are processed by dopamine receptors in the striatum, but the brain is designed to habituate, that is, not get so excited by repeated stimuli.”
“Human beings "habituate" to repetitive light-stimuli light flickering light.”
“The authors say that the command-and-control approach often used with dogs never works with cats (and will likely spur them to escape their harness and dash off), so it's important to know how to motivate them, how to reassure them when they get nervous, and how to habituate them to the sometimes-scary sounds and sights of the great outdoors.”
“And thus, over time, readers habituate to how inherently political is the "Muslims are coming to get us" plot.”
“Yes, some teachers and parents reflexively hand out the equivalent of a doggie biscuit every few minutes, the result being that kids habituate to it and it has no impact.”
The Huffington Post: Alfie Kohn: Criticizing (Common Criticisms of) Praise
“A deplorable number of recent works habituate us to thinking about Afghanistan as what Liam Fox, Britain's defence secretary, called a "broken 13th-century country", defined solely by pathologically violent men and silently brutalised women.”
“But then we habituate to our new possessions, and our happiness level falls back to where it was.”
The Huffington Post: Valerie Tarico: Ivo -- Man With a World Instead of a Country
“Also, you don't habituate to experiences as you do with a new car or phone.”
The Huffington Post: Joe Robinson: The Hidden Key to Happiness: Participant Experiences
“So, I've been going through each song slowly in practice mode trying to habituate myself.”
“Hey, everything I read lately tells me inflation is about as alive as the folks who habituate the local cemetery.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘habituate’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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You ate what?
habituate, eventuate, accentuate, effectuate, perpetuate, exsanguinate, insinuate, evaluate, fluctuate, adequate, menstruate, disambiguate and 21 more...
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Potpourri
eponymous, aa, pulchritude, gizmo, macabre, sui generis, solecism, solipsism, eldritch, samizdat, queue, obsequious and 469 more...
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Words to Learn
colloquium, resilient, ruminate, missive, sylvan, indefatigable, preclude, prowess, quiescent, caustic, verdant, specter and 119 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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My GRE
concomitant, mendacity, corollary, mandate, ascertain, exacerbate, substantiate, perennial, exemplify, hegemony, acrimonious, repertoire and 653 more...
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From Book - SAT & College Dictionary ...
ebb, exotic, immure, abeyance, panegyric, debonair, protege, dissipate, frantic, penitent, abject, edify and 871 more...
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Willieb's Words
pusillanimous, exigible, extraneous, contemptible, banal, generic, secular, canard, acerbic, erudite, versus, atheist and 192 more...
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Next!
salvific, redemptive, salvic, roil, changeling, barrow, burro, sow, swath, haymow, shock, sheaves and 190 more...
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ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
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phil vocab 2
tribunal, inculcation, confounds, indisputable, susceptible, faculty, hypothetical, heterogeneous, homogeneous, convention, fluctuation, incontinent and 38 more...
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H
words starting with h
habituate, hackles, hackneyed, haggard, haggle, halcyon, hale, hallowed, hallucination, halting, hap, hapless and 27 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for habituate.
oroboros Also used in the sense of inure and sate and cloy in, say, the taste buds in winetasting. Nov 17, 2007
slumry to become accustomed to Jul 19, 2007