used to

British  

/ juːst /

adjective

1. made familiar with; accustomed to

   I am used to hitchhiking

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verb

1. (takes an infinitive or implied infinitive) used as an auxiliary to express habitual or accustomed actions, states, etc, taking place in the past but not continuing into the present

   I don't drink these days, but I used to

   I used to fish here every day

used to Idioms  

1. Accustomed or habituated to. This expression is often put as , as in I'm not used to driving a manual-shift car , or She can't get used to calling him Dad . [Early 1500s]

2. Formerly. This sense is used with a following verb to indicate a past state, as in I used to ride my bicycle to the post office , or This used to be the best restaurant in town . [Late 1800s]

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Usage

The most common negative form of used to is didn't used to (or didn't use to ), but in formal contexts used not to is preferred

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

used to

Being put on a PIP by someone who used to be your equal probably stirs up feelings of inadequacy.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026

These days, wellness products that used to be branded in spiritual and soft, earthy, non-Western ways during the Goop era are now promoted by men in tight black T-shirts talking about optimization and hard science.

From Slate ● Jul. 29, 2026

Some companies also generally have concerns that their data will be used to train new models that could further help Anthropic launch competing products.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026

Gigahertz is a unit used to describe the frequency of electromagnetic waves.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026

“Yeah, it is a little. But I’m used to it now,” I reply, trying to suppress a smile.

From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold