habit

• IPA^(key): /ˈhæbɪt/
• (weak vowel merger) IPA^(key): /ˈhæbət/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æbɪt

From Middle English habit, from Latin habitus (“condition, bearing, state, appearance, dress, attire”), from habeō (“I have, hold, keep”). Replaced Middle English abit, from Old French abit, itself from the same Latin source.

habit (countable and uncountable, plural habits)

1. An action performed on a regular basis.
   • Washington Irving

     a man of very shy, retired habits

   • 2013 July 19, Ian Sample, “Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 34:

     Irregular bedtimes may disrupt healthy brain development in young children, according to a study of intelligence and sleeping habits.  ¶ Going to bed at a different time each night affected girls more than boys, but both fared worse on mental tasks than children who had a set bedtime, researchers found.

   It’s become a habit of mine to have a cup of coffee after dinner.

2. An action performed repeatedly and automatically, usually without awareness.

   By force of habit, he dressed for work even though it was holiday.

3. A long piece of clothing worn by monks and nuns.

   It’s interesting how Catholic and Buddhist monks both wear habits.

4. A piece of clothing worn uniformly for a specific activity.

   The new riding habits of the team looked smashing!

5. (archaic) Outward appearance; attire; dress.
   • Shakespeare

     Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy.

   • Addison

     There are, among the statues, several of Venus, in different habits.

   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

     […] it was always my fate to choose for the worse, so I did here; for having money in my pocket and good clothes upon my back, I would always go on board in the habit of a gentleman; and so I neither had any business in the ship, or learned to do any.

6. (botany, mineralogy) Form of growth or general appearance of a variety or species of plant or crystal.
7. An addiction.

   He has a 10-cigar habit.

• wont

• exhibit
• habitual
• habituate
• inhibit
• prohibit

• eating habit

From Middle English habiten, from Old French habiter, from Latin habitāre, present active infinitive of habitō (“I dwell, abide, keep”), frequentative of habeō (“I have, hold, keep”); see have.

habit (third-person singular simple present habits, present participle habiting, simple past and past participle habited)

1. (transitive) To clothe.
2. (transitive, archaic) To inhabit.

• habitat
• habitation

• habit in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• habit in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Borrowed from Proto-Slavic *xabiti ("to spoil, to waste"). Compare Serbo-Croatian habiti. [1]

• IPA^(key): /haˈbit/

habit (first-person singular past tense habita, participle habitur)

1. I surprise
2. I astonish
3. (mainly Kosovo) I distract, confuse

• habi
• habitshëm
• habitur
• habitje
• habitore

From Old French habit, abit, borrowed from Latin habitus.

• ^{(mute h)} IPA^(key): /a.bi/

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habit m (plural habits)

1. article of clothing, garment, dress-coat, evening dress, tails, full dress

• habiller
• habillement

• “habit” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

habit m (oblique plural habiz or habitz, nominative singular habiz or habitz, nominative plural habit)

1. Alternative form of abit

• IPA^(key): /ˈxa.bʲit/

• Audio

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habit m inan

1. habit (clothing worn by monks and nuns)