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definitions

routine

[roo-teen]
noun
  1. a customary or regular course of procedure.
  2. commonplace tasks, chores, or duties as must be done regularly or at specified intervals; typical or everyday activity: the routine of an office.
  3. regular, unvarying, habitual, unimaginative, or rote procedure.
  4. an unvarying and constantly repeated formula, as of speech or action; convenient or predictable response: Don't give me that brotherly-love routine!
  5. Computers.
    1. a complete set of coded instructions directing a computer to perform a series of operations.
    2. a series of operations performed by the computer.
  6. an individual act, performance, or part of a performance, as a song or dance, given regularly by an entertainer: a comic routine; a dance routine.
adjective
  1. of the nature of, proceeding by, or adhering to routine: routine duties.
  2. dull or uninteresting; commonplace.

Origin of routine

1670–80; < French, derivative of route route
Related formsrou·tine·ly, adverbrou·tine·ness, nounnon·rou·tine, adjective, nounun·rou·tine, adjectiveun·rou·tine·ly, adverb
Can be confusedregular routine

Synonyms for routine

8. habitual, ordinary, typical.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
British Dictionary definitions for nonroutine

routine

noun
  1. a usual or regular method of procedure, esp one that is unvarying
  2. computing a program or part of a program performing a specific functionan input routine; an output routine
  3. a set sequence of dance steps
  4. informal a hackneyed or insincere speech
adjective
  1. of, relating to, or characteristic of routine
Derived Formsroutinely, adverb

Word Origin for routine

C17: from Old French, from route a customary way, route
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for nonroutine

routine

n.

1670s, from French routine "usual course of action, beaten path" (16c.), from route "way, path, course" (see route (n.)) + noun suffix -ine (see -ine (1)). Theatrical or athletic performance sense is from 1926. The adjective is attested from 1817, from the noun. Related: Routinely.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper