Definitions for habit
ˈhæb ɪthabit

Princeton's WordNet(4.55 / 18 votes)Rate this definition:

1. habit, wontnoun

   an established custom

   "it was their habit to dine at 7 every evening"

2. habit, usenoun

   (psychology) an automatic pattern of behavior in reaction to a specific situation; may be inherited or acquired through frequent repetition

   "owls have nocturnal habits"; "she had a habit twirling the ends of her hair"; "long use had hardened him to it"

3. habitnoun

   a distinctive attire worn by a member of a religious order

4. habitnoun

   the general form or mode of growth (especially of a plant or crystal)

   "a shrub of spreading habit"

5. habit, riding habitnoun

   attire that is typically worn by a horseback rider (especially a woman's attire)

6. substance abuse, drug abuse, habitverb

   excessive use of drugs

7. habitverb

   put a habit on

GCIDE(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Habitnoun

   Hence: The distinctive clothing worn commonly by nuns or monks; as, in the late 1900's many orders of nuns discarded their habits and began to dress as ordinary lay women.

   Etymology: [OE. habit, abit, F. habit, fr. L. habitus state, appearance, dress, fr. habere to have, be in a condition; prob. akin to E. have. See Have, and cf. Able, Binnacle, Debt, Due, Exhibit, Malady.]

2. Habitnoun

   (Biol.) The general appearance and manner of life of a living organism. Specifically, the tendency of a plant or animal to grow in a certain way; as, the deciduous habit of certain trees.

   Etymology: [OE. habit, abit, F. habit, fr. L. habitus state, appearance, dress, fr. habere to have, be in a condition; prob. akin to E. have. See Have, and cf. Able, Binnacle, Debt, Due, Exhibit, Malady.]

Webster Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Habitnoun

   the usual condition or state of a person or thing, either natural or acquired, regarded as something had, possessed, and firmly retained; as, a religious habit; his habit is morose; elms have a spreading habit; esp., physical temperament or constitution; as, a full habit of body

   Etymology: [OE. habiten to dwell, F. habiter, fr. L. habitare to have frequently, to dwell, intens. fr. habere to have. See Habit, n.]

2. Habitnoun

   the general appearance and manner of life of a living organism

   Etymology: [OE. habiten to dwell, F. habiter, fr. L. habitare to have frequently, to dwell, intens. fr. habere to have. See Habit, n.]

3. Habitnoun

   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; as, habit is second nature; also, peculiar ways of acting; characteristic forms of behavior

   Etymology: [OE. habiten to dwell, F. habiter, fr. L. habitare to have frequently, to dwell, intens. fr. habere to have. See Habit, n.]

4. Habitnoun

   outward appearance; attire; dress; hence, a garment; esp., a closely fitting garment or dress worn by ladies; as, a riding habit

   Etymology: [OE. habiten to dwell, F. habiter, fr. L. habitare to have frequently, to dwell, intens. fr. habere to have. See Habit, n.]

5. Habitnoun

   to inhabit

   Etymology: [OE. habiten to dwell, F. habiter, fr. L. habitare to have frequently, to dwell, intens. fr. habere to have. See Habit, n.]

6. Habitnoun

   to dress; to clothe; to array

   Etymology: [OE. habiten to dwell, F. habiter, fr. L. habitare to have frequently, to dwell, intens. fr. habere to have. See Habit, n.]

7. Habitnoun

   to accustom; to habituate. [Obs.] Chapman

   Etymology: [OE. habiten to dwell, F. habiter, fr. L. habitare to have frequently, to dwell, intens. fr. habere to have. See Habit, n.]

Freebase(5.00 / 2 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Habit

   Habits are routines of behavior that are repeated regularly and tend to occur subconsciously. In the American Journal of Psychology it is defined in this way: "A habit, from the standpoint of psychology, is a more or less fixed way of thinking, willing, or feeling acquired through previous repetition of a mental experience." Habitual behavior often goes unnoticed in persons exhibiting it, because a person does not need to engage in self-analysis when undertaking routine tasks. Habituation is an extremely simple form of learning, in which an organism, after a period of exposure to a stimulus, stops responding to that stimulus in varied manners. Habits are sometimes compulsory. The process by which new behaviours become automatic is habit formation. Examples of habit formation are the following: If you instinctively reach for a cigarette the moment you wake up in the morning, you have a habit. Also, if you lace up your running shoes and hit the streets as soon as you get home, you've acquired a habit. Old habits are hard to break and new habits are hard to form because the behavioural patterns we repeat are imprinted in our neural pathways. But the good news is that it is possible to form new habits through repetition.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Habit

   hab′it, n. ordinary course of conduct: tendency to perform certain actions: general condition or tendency, as of the body: practice: custom: outward appearance: dress, esp. any official or customary costume: a garment, esp. a tight-fitting dress, with a skirt, worn by ladies on horseback.—v.t. to dress:—pr.p. hab′iting; pa.p. hab′ited.—adj. Hab′ited, clothed, dressed.—ns. Hab′it-mak′er, one who makes women's riding-habits; Hab′it-shirt, a thin muslin or lace under-garment worn by women on the neck and shoulders, under the dress.—adj. Habit′ūal, formed or acquired by frequent use: customary.—adv. Habit′ūally.—v.t. Habit′ūāte, to cause to acquire a habit: to accustom.—ns. Habitūā′tion; Hab′itūde, tendency from acquiring a habit: usual manner; Habitué (hab-it′ū-ā), a habitual frequenter of any place of entertainment, &c.—Habit and repute, a phrase in Scotch law to denote something so notorious that it affords strong and generally conclusive evidence of the facts to which it refers; Habit of body, the general condition of the body as outwardly apparent: any constitutional tendency or weakness. [Fr.,—L. habitus, state, dress—habēre, to have.]

The Roycroft Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. habit

   The buffer of our feelings; the armor that protects our nerve-force; the great economizer of energy.

Matched Categories

1. • Attire
   • Dress
   • Growth
   • Religion

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'habit' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #4075

2. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'habit' in Nouns Frequency: #1126

How to pronounce habit?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say habit in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of habit in Chaldean Numerology is: 4

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of habit in Pythagorean Numerology is: 4

Examples of habit in a Sentence

1. Walter Bagehot:

   The habit of common and continuous speech is a symptom of mental deficiency.

2. Adam Smith:

   The man whose whole life is spent in performing a few simple operations, of which the effects are perhaps always the same, or very nearly the same, has no occasion to exert his understanding or to exercise his invention in finding out expedients for removing difficulties which never occur. He naturally loses, therefore, the habit of such exertion, and generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become.

3. David Lloyd George:

   Liberty is not merely a privilege to be conferred; it is a habit to be acquired.

4. Aristotle:

   We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act by a habit.

5. Charles de LEUSSE:

   The boa digests slowly. The habit digests slowly. (Le boa digère lentement. - L’habitude digère lentement.)

Images & Illustrations of habit

Popularity rank by frequency of use