ACCUSTOM

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does accustom mean? 

• ACCUSTOM (verb)
  The verb ACCUSTOM has 1 sense:

1. make psychologically or physically used (to something)

  Familiarity information: ACCUSTOM used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ACCUSTOM (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they accustom    ... he / she / it accustoms   
Past simple: accustomed   
Past participle: accustomed   
-ing form: accustoming   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make psychologically or physically used (to something)

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

accustom; habituate

Context example:

She became habituated to the background music

Hypernyms (to "accustom" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "accustom"):

harden; indurate; inure (cause to accept or become hardened to; habituate)

teach (accustom gradually to some action or attitude)

addict; hook (to cause (someone or oneself) to become dependent (on something, especially a narcotic drug))

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody PP

 Context examples 

I was equally confounded at the sight of so many pigmies, for such I took them to be, after having so long accustomed mine eyes to the monstrous objects I had left.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

He refused to take into consideration what I was, or, rather, what my life and the things I was accustomed to had been.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The physiological process through which an organism grows accustomed to a new environment.

(Acclimatization, NCI Thesaurus)

I fondly explained to Dora that Jip should have his mutton-chop with his accustomed regularity.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

We had of late been so accustomed to watch for sunrise and sunset, that we knew with fair accuracy when it would be; and we knew that before long the sun would set.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The conduct of the criminal investigation has been left in the experienced hands of Inspector Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, who is following up the clues with his accustomed energy and sagacity.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Another disconcerting thing was that it made no outcry, such as he had been accustomed to with the other dogs he had fought.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

My eyes became accustomed to the light and to perceive objects in their right forms; I distinguished the insect from the herb, and by degrees, one herb from another.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

"Some of Maria's washing smells, I imagine," was the answer. "I am growing quite accustomed to them."

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

She was frightened by the earnestness of his manner, and ran past him to the window through which she was accustomed to hand the meals.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)