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
Several mahouts went to Sri Lanka in advance to accustom the animal to being caged so he wouldn’t panic during the trip to Thailand.
From Washington Times ● Jul. 2, 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
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
The cottage was full of memories, but it was easier to accustom the mind to new ones and train it to the loss in surroundings that were so different at this time of year.
From "The Incredible Journey" by Sheila Burnford
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
She accustoms herself to meditation, in order to get her mind more deeply imbued with a sense of eternal things.
From Coelebs In Search of a Wife by Hannah More
The daily visit to the paddock accustoms the younger horses to the presence 234of men, so that they are not altogether wild when they are taken in hand for breaking.
From The Land of the Kangaroo Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey through the Great Island Continent by Thomas Wallace Knox
I shall always fear that he who accustoms himself to fraud in little things, wants only opportunity to practice it in greater.
From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary by Noah Webster
Audiences have become accustomed to Mungiu pointing out uncomfortable truths.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
"They have grown accustomed to putting up with it."
From Barron's ● Oct. 3, 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
Over those two decades, Americans became accustomed to rates in the threes and fours.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
By that she meant reddish, although a person who was accustomed to talking about hair would be more likely to describe it as a rich auburn.
From "The Hidden Gallery" 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
Asimov viewed part of the task of science fiction as accustoming readers to the idea of change, to the knowledge that “things will be different,” and so to help them plan for change with wisdom.
From Slate ● Nov. 18, 2013
He seemed quite awed with the diabolical wickedness of Dizzy, who, he says, is gradually driving all ideas of political honour out of the House, and accustoming it to the most revolting cynicism.’
From The Real Gladstone an Anecdotal Biography by J. Ewing (James Ewing) Ritchie
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
