Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Custom

Cus′tom (kŭs′tŭm), n. [OF. custume, costume, Anglo-Norman coustome, F. coutume, fr. (assumed) LL. consuetumen custom, habit, fr. L. consuetudo, -dinis, fr. consuescere to accustom, verb inchoative fr. consuere to be accustomed; con- + suere to be accustomed, prob. originally, to make one's own, fr. the root of suus one's own; akin to E. so, adv. Cf. Consuetude, Costume.]

1. Frequent repetition of the same act; way of acting common to many; ordinary manner; habitual practice; usage; method of doing or living.

And teach customs which are not lawful. Acts xvi. 21.

Moved beyond his custom, Gama said. Tennyson.

A custom More honored in the breach than the observance. Shak.

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.

3. (Law) Long-established practice, considered as unwritten law, and resting for authority on long consent; usage. See Usage, and Prescription.

☞ Usage is a fact. Custom is a law. There can be no custom without usage, though there may be usage without custom. Wharton.

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.

Syn. — Practice; fashion. See Habit, and Usage.

Cus′tom, v. t. [Cf. OF. costumer. Cf. Accustom.]

1. To make familiar; to accustom. [Obs.] Gray.

2. To supply with customers. [Obs.] Bacon.

Cus′tom, v. i. To have a custom. [Obs.]

On a bridge he custometh to fight. Spenser.

Cus′tom, n. [OF. coustume, F. coutume, tax, i. e., the usual tax. See 1st Custom.] 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. 7.

2. pl. Duties or tolls imposed by law on commodities, imported or exported.

Cus′tom, v. t. To pay the customs of. [Obs.] Marlowe.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.