English▸ noun
1 a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up:
we stayed together out of habit
this can develop into a bad habit.
▪ informal an addictive practice, especially one of taking drugs:
a cocaine habit.
▪ Psychology an automatic reaction to a specific situation.
▪ general shape or mode of growth, especially of a plant or a mineral:
a shrub of spreading habit.
2 a long, loose garment worn by a member of a religious order or congregation:
nuns in long brown habits, black veils, and sandals.
▪ archaic dress; attire:
in the vile habit of a village slave.
▸ verb [with object] (be habited) archaic dress; clothe:
a boy habited as a serving lad.
– ORIGIN Middle English : from Old French abit, habit, from Latin habitus ‘condition, appearance’, from habere ‘have, consist of’. The term originally meant ‘dress, attire’, later coming to denote physical or mental constitution.