Word.ws English Dictionary

accustom

/əˈkʌs.təm/

accustom verb: to make familiar by use; to cause to accept; to habituate, familiarize, or inure.

Verb

accustom (third-person singular simple present accustoms, present participle accustoming, simple past and past participle accustomed)

  1. (transitive, often passive voice or reflexive) To make familiar by use; to cause to accept; to habituate, familiarize, or inure.
    • Early exposure to pet allergens and pet-related bacteria accustoms the body to allergens.
    • I shall always fear that he who accustoms himself to fraud in little things, wants only opportunity to practice it in greater.c. 1753, John Hawkesworth et al., Adventurer
  2. (intransitive, obsolete) To be wont.
    • all of them accustoming , once in the year , to take their kind of the fresh water1609, Richard Carew, The Survey of Cornwall, London: […] S[imon] S[tafford] for Iohn Iaggard, […], →OCLC
  3. (intransitive, obsolete) To cohabit.
    • Much better do we Britans fulfill the work of Nature than you Romans; we with the beſt men accuſtom op'nly; you with the baſest commit private adulteries.1670, John Milton, “The Second Book”, in The History of Britain, that Part Especially now Call’d England. […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for James Allestry, […] , →OCLC, page 83

Noun

accustom (plural accustoms)

  1. (obsolete) Custom.

accustom meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

accustom in Tamil

பழக்கப்படுத்திக்கொள், பழக்கமாக்கு, பயிற்று

accustom in Urdu

عادی ہونا, خوگر ہونا

accustom in Bengali

অভ্যস্ত করা

accustom in Malayalam

പരിചയിക്കുക, ശീലിക്കുക, അഭ്യസിക്കുക, തഴക്കം വരുത്തുക
More languagesFewer languages
accustom in Kannada
ಬಳಕೆಗೆ ಬರು, ಹೊಂದಿಕೊಳ್ಳು, ಒಗ್ಗು, ರೂಢಿ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಳ್ಳು
accustom in Thai
คุ้นเคย khoon-khuey

Examples of accustom in a sentence

  • Dangerous enough you are as woman alone, without bringing to your aid those gifts of mind suited to problems which men have been accustomed to arrogate to themselves.”1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
  • Winfrey’s show, to accustom his ear to hearing English.2011 March 11, Larry Rohter, “CNN’s Latin Sister Looks to Capture a Booming Market”, in The New York Times:
  • […] creating 3D graphics “is a fundamental building block” to popularizing AR because it helps accustom the general public to interacting with 3D content.2017 May 31, Jonathan Vanian, “How Microsoft Is Sowing the Seeds of an Augmented Reality Future”, in Fortune:

Synonyms of accustom

3 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of accustom

Forms of accustom

Verb
third-person singular presentaccustoms
present participleaccustoming
past participleaccustomed
pastaccustomed
Noun
pluralaccustoms

Past tense of accustom: accustomed

Origin of accustom

The verb is from Middle English accustomen, from Old French acoustumer, acustumer (Modern French accoutumer) corresponding to a (“to, toward”) + custom. More at custom, costume. The noun is from Middle English acustom.

Words formed from accustom

Questions about accustom

What does accustom mean?
Accustom means to make familiar by use; to cause to accept; to habituate, familiarize, or inure.
What is accustom in Tamil?
Accustom in Tamil is பழக்கப்படுத்திக்கொள், பழக்கமாக்கு, பயிற்று. See Accustom meaning in Tamil.
How do you use accustom in a sentence?
Dangerous enough you are as woman alone, without bringing to your aid those gifts of mind suited to problems which men have been accustomed to arrogate to themselves.”
What part of speech is accustom?
Accustom can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce accustom?
Accustom is pronounced /əˈkʌs.təm/.
What is the past tense of accustom?
The past tense of accustom is accustomed.

Words near accustom in the dictionary

  1. accusor
  2. accusors
  3. accusour
  4. accusours
  5. accussin
  6. accustom
  7. accustomable
  8. accustomably
  9. accustomance
  10. accustomances
  11. accustomarily

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: accustom (page history and authors); accustom (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); accustom (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); accustom (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); accustom (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); accustom (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-accustom.ogg.

Cite this entry: “accustom.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/accustom. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.