Find the word definition

Crossword clues for wont

wont
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
wont
I.noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Desmond Seymour-Strachey sat, accepting the bustle, as was his wont.
▪ His horrible wont was to envelop his victim with his wings and suffocate him to death.
▪ Organic causes were ruled out so, as is his wont, he sat down and talked to her.
II.adjective
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Be still, my beating heart, as T. Wogan was wont to say.
▪ Ickes is wont to yawn in mid-conversation.
▪ It could be catastrophic if he started giving himself airs, as tenors are wont to do.
▪ The theist thereby comes to justify as a paradox what the atheist is wont to dismiss as a confusion.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Wont

Wont \Wont\, v. t. To accustom; -- used reflexively.

Wont

Wont \Wont\, a. [For woned, p. p. of won, wone, to dwell, AS. wunian; akin to D. wonen, OS. wun?n, OHG, won?n, G. wohnen, and AS. wund, gewuna, custom, habit; orig. probably, to take pleasure; cf. Icel. una to dwell, to enjoy, Goth. wunan to rejoice (in unwunands sad); and akin to Skr. van to like, to wish. ????. Cf. Wean, Win.] Using or doing customarily; accustomed; habituated; used. ``As he was wont to go.''
--Chaucer.

If the ox were wont to push with his horn.
--Ex. xxi. 29.

Wont

Wont \Wont\, n. Custom; habit; use; usage.

They are . . . to be called out to their military motions, under sky or covert, according to the season, as was the Roman wont.
--Milton.

From childly wont and ancient use.
--Cowper.

Wont

Wont \Wont\, v. i. [imp. Wont, p. p. Wont, or Wonted; p. pr. & vb. n. Wonting.] To be accustomed or habituated; to be used.

A yearly solemn feast she wont to make.
--Spenser.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
wont

"accustomed," Middle English contraction of Old English wunod, past participle of wunian "to dwell, inhabit, exist; be accustomed, be used to," from Proto-Germanic *wunen "to be content, to rejoice" (cognates: Old Saxon wunon, Old Frisian wonia "to dwell, remain, be used to," Old High German wonen, German wohnen "to dwell;" related to Old English winnan, gewinnan "to win" (see win (v.)) and to wean; from PIE *wen- (1) "strive for, desire." The original meaning of the Germanic verbs was "be content, rejoice."

wont

"habitual usage, custom," c.1400, from wont, adjective and verb.

Wiktionary
wont

Etymology 1 n. One’s habitual way of doing things, practice, custom. Etymology 2

  1. 1 (context archaic English) accustomed or used (''to'' or ''with'' a thing). 2 (context designating habitual behaviour English) accustom, apt (''to doing'' something). v

  2. 1 (context transitive archaic English) To make (someone) used to; to accustom. 2 (context intransitive archaic English) To be accustomed.

WordNet
wont
  1. n. an established custom; "it was their habit to dine at 7 every evening" [syn: habit]

  2. a pattern of behavior acquired through frequent repetition; "she had a habit twirling the ends of her hair"; "long use had hardened him to it" [syn: habit, use]

Wikipedia
Wont

A wont is a habit, or routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously.

Wont may also refer to:

  • Won't, the English contraction for will not
  • WONT-LP, former call sign of WBYD-CA, a television station based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Usage examples of "wont".

Jacopo Contarini had gone to the house of the Agnus Dei for an hour, and during that time he had told Arisa everything, according to his wont.

Up, still up, until we reached the chamber where had dwelt Simbri the Shaman, that same chamber whence he was wont to watch his stars, in which Atene had threatened us with death.

When the usual festivities had taken place, and the wonted largesses had been distributed, Gunther bade his bride prepare to follow him back to the Rhine with her personal female attendants, who numbered no less than one hundred and sixty-eight.

I was somehow a thought uneasy thereat, not knowing what the bailie, now that he was out of the guildry, might be saying anent the use and wont that had been practised therein, and never more than in his own time.

The choicest tapestries which the looms of Arras could furnish draped the walls, whereon the battles of Judas Maccabaeus were set forth, with the Jewish warriors in plate of proof, with crest and lance and banderole, as the naive artists of the day were wont to depict them.

Once there, the pain he was in, added to the disorder occasioned in his brain by the five leaders, caused him to give forth a summary of their contents, while Blink pressed his knees with her chin whenever the rising of his voice betokened too great absorption, as was her wont when she wanted him to feed her.

But when Sir Orlando had joined the Coalition, and when the sterner spirit of Mr Boffin had preferred principles to place,--to use the language in which he was wont to speak to himself and to his wife and family of his own abnegation,--there had come a coolness between them.

Next to the altar stood Sir Frederick Langley, dark, moody, and thoughtful, even beyond his wont, and near him, Mareschal, who was to play the part of bridesman, as it was called.

The window in the side of the bubbler gleamed in the light of the sunset, as shiny objects were wont to do.

For herself she took also a light byrnie such as shield-mays among the elves were wont to use.

Charlie and Robert, were wont to go to Irville, and it was soon seen that they kept themselves aloof from the other callans in the clachan, and had a genteeler turn than the grulshy bairns of the cottars.

Ursula spoke little, nor heeded much what the others said, and Ralph deemed that she was paler than of wont, and her brows were knitted as if she were somewhat anxious.

The supper was excellent, and Scholastica did honour to it, while Armelline, contrary to her wont, scarcely touched a thing.

The other was the antics of a circus clown--a member, I believe, of a Connecticut or a New York regiment, who, on the rare occasions when we were feeling not exactly well so much as simply better than we had been, would give us an hour or two of recitations of the drolleries with which he was wont to set the crowded canvas in a roar.

Your Aunt and Harry Whent to the Wells Races and Spent a very Pleasant Day your Aunt has Lost Old Fanney Sow She Died about a Week a Go Harry he Wanted your Aunt to have her killed and send her to London and Shee Wold Fech her 11 pounds the Farmers have Lost a Greet Deal of Cattel such as Hogs and Cows What theay call the Plage I Whent to your Aunt as you Wish Mee to Do But She Told Mee She Did not wont aney Boddy She Told Mee She Should Like to Come up to see you But She Cant Come know for she is Boddyley ill and Harry Donte Work there know But he Go up there Once in Two or Three Day Harry Offered is self to Go up to Live With your Aunt But She Made him know Ancer.