accustom
Americanverb (used with object)
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accustoms,
present (3rd person singular)
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accustomed,
past participle, past
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accustoming
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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preaccustomverb (used with object)
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reaccustomverb (used with object)
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unaccustomverb (used with object)
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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accustomsimple
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accustomssimple
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have accustomedperfect
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has accustomedperfect
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am accustomingprogressive
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are accustomingprogressive
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is accustomingprogressive
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have been accustomingperfect progressive
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has been accustomingperfect progressive
Past
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accustomedsimple
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had accustomedperfect
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was accustomingprogressive
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were accustomingprogressive
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had been accustomingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of accustom
First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English word from Middle French word acoustumer. See ac-, custom
Explanation
The verb accustom means to become used to or familiar with something; to make something a habit. If there is a new baby in your family, you will most likely become accustomed to changing diapers. Although the verb accustom looks like it should be related to the word custom, it actually comes through costume, through the Old French acostumer, with à, meaning "to," and costume, meaning "fashion or habit." Now it retains the meaning to make something a habit. You can accustom yourself to loud sirens if you live in a city or to the sound of crickets if you live in the country. Parents often cannot become accustomed to the musical taste of their kids.
Vocabulary lists containing accustom
List 4
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"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, Chapters 7–11
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Tears of a Tiger
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Trent, the former customer the Roosevelt Bartell, ended up at the Rite Aid in Wedgwood, where she said she’s had to accustom herself to long waits.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 16, 2023
As the rare woman in the upper echelons of Chinese politics, it is a role to which she has become accustom, driving the Communist Party’s will and bearing the country’s criticism.
From New York Times ● Oct. 19, 2022
Much the same is true for the pandemic, which lingers in ways we find we can endure precisely because our martial metaphors accustom us to thinking we will definitively defeat it.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 9, 2022
You can accustom yourself to believing things without support or believing things without empirical validation or believing by simply brushing aside questions.
From Salon ● Sep. 24, 2021
“Pure math. You have to accustom yourself to thinking that way.”
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
Chief among these techniques is "systematic desensitization," the process a mother uses when she accustoms a baby to the ocean by dipping in one foot first, then a leg, then the infant's whole body.
From Time Magazine Archive
Though it is repetitious and - I am afraid to say - increasingly annoying to listen to, this technique soon accustoms our ears to expect equal weight in a tune’s two halves.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
The natural man is eager for expansion and liberty, and accustoms himself with difficulty to the severe restrictions which social necessities impose upon him.
From The Sexual Question A Scientific, psychological, hygienic and sociological study by Auguste Forel
Time, philosophy tells us, accustoms man to almost anything.
From The Hickory Limb by Rose Cecil O'Neill
Whoever, therefore, undervalues this National Union, whoever depreciates it, whoever accustoms himself to consider how the people might get on without it, appears to me to encourage sentiments subversive of the foundations of our prosperity.
From The Works of Daniel Webster, Volume 1 by Daniel Webster
On average, birds accustomed to carrying weights throughout development used no more energy while walking with their bands than ordinary birds used when walking without any added weight.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 14, 2026
McVay said he wants to see how Garrett’s knee responds positively to football-related activities and drills, that “put him in a position to join the group and be the guy that we’re accustomed to seeing.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 10, 2026
You are lucky and/or willing to keep working, and ensure that you top up your retirement fund, and keep yourself in the lifestyle — however grand or modest — to which you have become accustomed.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 30, 2026
Gym bros accustomed to bench-presses and burpees swagger into serene studios expecting to spend 50 minutes doing light exercises with toy dumbbells.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026
Nowadays, of course, people are accustomed to paintings of sheep that look nothing like actual sheep, but simply content themselves with being paintings, full of color and lines and interesting shapes.
From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood
Writer-director Adam Meeks has set out to make a drama-documentary hybrid, and this is his simple opening gambit, accustoming us to seeing the characters he has created enmeshed in a world inhabited by real people.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
Bacon said he and the fellow star had no qualms accustoming to their new routine while quarantining amid the coronavirus pandemic.
From Fox News ● Jan. 10, 2022
“These reviews also had a good effect in accustoming the troops to see me, although they saw so much of me in their camps and on the picket-lines that this was of minor importance.”
From New York Times ● Oct. 13, 2017
The old falconers called the process of accustoming a hawk to a human “watching.”
From Slate ● Mar. 6, 2015
The last method by which Christianity has laboured to soften the characters of men has been by accustoming the imagination to expatiate continually upon images of tenderness and of pathos.
From History of European Morals From Augustus to Charlemagne (Vol. 2 of 2) by William Edward Hartpole Lecky
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