Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A traditional practice or usual way of doing something followed by a social group or people.
  • noun The tradition or body of such practices.
  • noun A habitual practice of a person: synonym: habit.
  • noun Habitual manner or practice.
  • noun Law A common tradition or usage so long established that it has the force or validity of law.
  • noun Habitual patronage, as of a store.
  • noun Duties or taxes imposed on imported and, less commonly, exported goods.
  • noun The governmental agency authorized to collect these duties.
  • noun The procedure for inspecting goods and baggage entering a country.
  • noun Tribute, service, or rent paid by a feudal tenant to a lord.
  • adjective Made to order.
  • adjective Specializing in the making or selling of made-to-order goods.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The common use or practice, either of an individual or of a community, but especially of the latter; habitual repetition of the same act or procedure; established manner or way.
  • noun In law, collectively, the settled habitudes of a community, such as are and have been for an indefinite time past generally recognized in it as the standards of what is just and right; ancient and general usage having the force of law.
  • noun The buying of goods or supplying of one's current needs; the practice of having recourse to some particular place, shop, manufactory, house of entertainment, etc., for the purpose of purchasing or giving orders.
  • noun Toll, tax, or duty; in the plural, specifically, the duties imposed by law on merchandise imported or exported.
  • noun In old French law, a system of customary law common to a whole province.
  • noun Duty, Impost, etc. See tax, n.
  • Done or made for individual customers, or to order: as, custom work; custom shoes.
  • Engaged in doing custom work: as, a custom tailor.
  • To make familiar; accustom.
  • To give custom to; supply with customers.
  • To pay duty for at the custom-house.
  • To be accustomed; be wont.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb obsolete To make familiar; to accustom.
  • transitive verb obsolete To supply with customers.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To have a custom.
  • transitive verb obsolete To pay the customs of.
  • noun The customary toll, tax, or tribute.
  • noun Duties or tolls imposed by law on commodities, imported or exported.
  • noun Frequent repetition of the same act; way of acting common to many; ordinary manner; habitual practice; usage; method of doing or living.
  • noun Habitual buying of goods; practice of frequenting, as a shop, manufactory, etc., for making purchases or giving orders; business support.
  • noun (Law) Long-established practice, considered as unwritten law, and resting for authority on long consent; usage. See Usage, and Prescription.
  • noun obsolete Familiar aquaintance; familiarity.
  • noun a system or code of customs by which affairs of commerce are regulated.
  • noun those which extend over a state or kingdom.
  • noun those which are limited to a city or district; as, the customs of London.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Frequent repetition of the same behavior; way of behavior common to many; ordinary manner; habitual practice; usage; method of doing, living or behaving.
  • noun Habitual buying of goods; practice of frequenting, as a shop, manufactory, etc., for making purchases or giving orders; business support.
  • noun law Long-established practice, considered as unwritten law, and resting for authority on long consent; usage. See Usage, and Prescription.
  • noun obsolete Familiar acquaintance; familiarity.
  • noun The customary toll, tax, or tribute.
  • noun created under particular specifications, specialized, unique, custom-made
  • adjective made in a different way from usual, specially to fit one's needs
  • verb obsolete (transitive) To make familiar; to accustom.
  • verb obsolete (transitive) To supply with customers.
  • verb obsolete (transitive) To pay the customs of.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English custume, from Old French costume, from Latin cōnsuētūdō, cōnsuētūdin-, from cōnsuētus, past participle of cōnsuēscere, to accustom : com-, intensive pref.; see com– + suēscere, to become accustomed; see s(w)e- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English custume, from Anglo-Norman custume, from Old French coustume, from Vulgar Latin *cōnsuētūmen, from Latin cōnsuētūdinem, accusative singular of cōnsuētūdō ("custom, habit"), from cōnsuēscō ("accustom, habituate"), from con- ("with") + suēscō ("become used or accustomed"), inchoative form of sueō ("I am accustomed"), perhaps from suus ("one's own, his own"); see consuetude. Displaced native Middle English wune, wone ("custom, habit, practice") (from Old English wuna ("custom, habit, practice, rite")), Middle English side, sid ("custom") (from Old English sidu, sido ("custom, note, manner")), Middle English cure ("custom, choice, preference") (from Old English cyre ("choice, choosing, free will")).

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word custom.

Examples

  • As, therefore, the presbyters know that, in accordance with _the custom of the Church_, they are subject to him who has been set over them, so the bishops should know that they are greater than the presbyters, rather _by custom_, than by the truth of an arrangement of the Lord. "

    The Ancient Church Its History, Doctrine, Worship, and Constitution 1854

  • If those ideas are a little bit far fetched for your taste, then you might want to purchase a great bottle of wine or champagne, and have the label custom printed with the couple's names, and the date of their upcoming nuptials.

    xml's Blinklist.com 2008

  • Just because the custom is also very much built-in to human behavior, so what?

    The Volokh Conspiracy » A Better Question 2010

  • They took possession, therefore, of Zayla, which they made a den of thieves, established there what they called a custom-house11, and, by means of that post and galleys cruising in the narrow straits of

    First footsteps in East Africa 2003

  • In some countries, we vary this arrangement by increasing the social freedom of married people; but the custom is accompanied by a commensurate lack of freedom before marriage, which causes questionable results, both in married life and in social life.

    Women and Economics: A Study of the Economic Relation Between Men and Women as a Factor in Social Evolution 1898

  • This custom is almost universal, even to the present day.

    Hawaii's Story, by Hawaii's Queen 1898

  • They took possession, therefore, of Zayla, which they made a den of thieves, established there what they called a custom-house [11], and, by means of that post and galleys cruising in the narrow straits of Bab el Mandeb, they laid the

    First Footsteps in East Africa Richard Francis Burton 1855

  • Yet when I name custom, I understand not the vulgar custom; for that were a precept no less dangerous to language than life, if we should speak or live after the manners of the vulgar: but that I call custom of speech, which is the consent of the learned; as custom of life, which is the consent of the good.

    Discoveries Made Upon Men and Matter and Some Poems Ben Jonson 1605

  • Robert J. Biggins, a former president of the National Funeral Directors Association, said J.ckson's body is likely in his casket, which he identified as a custom-made, top-of-the-line coffin made by the Indiana-based Batesville Casket Company that is called a "Promethean."

    Local News from The Lakeland Ledger 2009

  • My favorite Colombian custom is the having of the soup at lunch.

    Mas Vainas of the Unexamined Life « Unknowing 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • ... it can have all of my custom every time. HF 22

    December 7, 2006

  • A contronym: both traditional (usual) and configured (special).

    May 14, 2008

  • custom = a tradition in a country

    May 15, 2009