Word Direct Answers

What does "custom" mean?

Custom: Moved beyong his custom, Gama said. Tennyson. A custom More honored in the breach than the observance. Shak.

Additional senses

  1. 2.Habitual buying of goods; practice of frequenting, as a shop, manufactory, etc., for making purchases or giving orders; business support. Let him have your custom, but not your votes. Addison.
  2. 3.(Law) Long-established practice, considered as unwritten law, and resting for authority on long consent; usage. See Usage, and Prescription. Note: Usage is a fact. Custom is a law. There can be no custom without usage, though there may be usage without custom. Wharton.
  3. 4.Familiar aquaintance; familiarity. [Obs.] Age can not wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety. Shak. Custom of merchants, a system or code of customs by which affairs of commerce are regulated. -- General customs, those which extend over a state or kingdom. -- Particular customs, those which are limited to a city or district; as, the customs of London. See Habit, and Usage.
  4. 5.To make familiar; to accustom. [Obs.] Gray.
  5. 6.To supply with customers. [Obs.] Bacon.
  6. 7.To have a custom. [Obs.] On a bridge he custometh to fight. Spenser.
  7. 8.1 the customary toll,tax, or tribute. Render, therefore, to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom. Rom. xiii.
  8. 9.2. pl. Duties or tolls imposed by law on commodities, imported or exported.
  9. 10.To pay the customs of. [Obs.] Marlowe.

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