habituate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to accustom (a person, the mind, etc.), as to a particular situation.
Wealth habituated him to luxury.
- Synonyms:
- train, acclimate, familiarize
-
Archaic. to frequent.
verb (used without object)
verb
-
to accustom; make used (to)
-
archaic to frequent
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
habituatesimple
-
habituatessimple
-
have habituatedperfect
-
has habituatedperfect
-
am habituatingprogressive
-
are habituatingprogressive
-
is habituatingprogressive
-
have been habituatingperfect progressive
-
has been habituatingperfect progressive
Past
-
habituatedsimple
-
had habituatedperfect
-
was habituatingprogressive
-
were habituatingprogressive
-
had been habituatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of habituate
1520–30; < Late Latin habituātus conditioned, constituted, (past participle of habituāre ), equivalent to habitu ( s ) habit 1 + -ātus -ate 1
Explanation
When you habituate something, you're helping it to get accustomed to a new home. Workers in zoos spend a lot of time habituating animals. The word "habit" in habituate is a clue to its meaning — by habituating, you're helping a creature or person get used to new surroundings and establish new habits, especially in a new habitat (home). If your dog spends the night with a friend, you might bring some of his toys to habituate him and make him feel comfortable. It takes a lot of time for a new cat to be habituated to a home. When you habituate something, you're helping it feel comfortable and accustomed to a new place.
Vocabulary lists containing habituate
The Alchemist
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Dear Martin
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Primates
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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:
"There's this idea that the animals are going to habituate to humans if they're not hunted. But we've shown that this isn't the case.," says Clinchy.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 5, 2023
But enough venues are starting to ask for digital passes to worry some privacy advocates, who fear the trend could habituate consumers to constant tracking.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 10, 2021
Other sloths that will return to the wild receive numbers instead of names because the Rodriguezes do not want them to habituate to people.
From Reuters ● Aug. 4, 2021
Mothers should habituate their children to strict schedules, let them cry themselves to sleep and avoid too much love and attention.
From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2019
Those who most dreaded this hideous community habituate themselves to it quickly; the contagion gains upon them.
From The Mysteries of Paris, Volume 5 of 6 by Sue, Eugène
It said cat food is not a natural part of the nene diet, and eating at the feeding stations habituates nene to people and makes them reliant on the provided food.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 19, 2023
Researchers don’t fully understand how the body habituates to cold weather.
From New York Times ● Dec. 21, 2020
But much of it comes from a deep religious faith that habituates the heart in a certain manner — the character that comes from a long obedience in the same direction.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 29, 2019
Douglas and Damon so fully inhabit their roles that the audience soon habituates to the novelty of seeing two such traditionally macho actors cast as gay lovers.
From Slate ● May 24, 2013
A long Course of Hopes and Expectations fixes the Idea in our Minds, and habituates us to a Fondness of the Person beloved.
From The Spectator, Volume 2. by Addison, Joseph
"The dogs in this investigation directed relatively little attention towards the television monitors and habituated to their presence within a short period of time," the report said.
From BBC ● Apr. 9, 2026
People have become habituated to this, tolerate it, factor it in.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 2, 2026
Now, 25 years after starting her pioneering research on savannah chimps, which had never before been habituated to observers, primatologist Jill Pruetz has a wealth of data.
From Barron's ● Jan. 15, 2026
The University of Zurich team observed a group of bonobos from a project by local biologists that had habituated the animals over 10 to 15 years, depending on the group.
From Salon ● May 29, 2025
Of course by now the bear has become thoroughly habituated both to human beings and to their food.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
Researchers started habituating the chimps to the presence of humans in 1987.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 14, 2024
This is the second attempt at habituating Mpungwe.
From BBC ● Jan. 6, 2024
Postal Service hitting record levels, the industry where nearly three-quarters of e-commerce companies offer some sort of free shipping is rethinking the financial cost of habituating shoppers to free shipping.
From Reuters ● Mar. 24, 2023
“We tend to be quite leery about the idea of almost habituating people to find our journalism somewhere else,” he said.
From New York Times ● Jun. 29, 2020
My first quarter at Lowood seemed an age; and not the golden age either; it comprised an irksome struggle with difficulties in habituating myself to new rules and unwonted tasks.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
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.
