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habit

Flag: gbEnglishOxford Dictionary of English
habit /ˈhabɪt /
▸ noun
1 a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up:
he has an annoying habit of interrupting me
good eating habits
[mass noun] we stayed together out of habit.
▪ informal an addictive practice, especially one of taking drugs:
a cocaine habit.
▪ Psychology an automatic reaction to a specific situation.
▪ [mass noun] 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:
nuns in long brown habits, black veils, and sandals.
▪ short for riding habit
▪ [mass noun] archaic clothes:
the prince has lately visited the copper mines of that kingdom, in the habit of a miner.
3 archaic a person's health or constitution:
a victim to a consumptive habit.
▸ (be habited) verb archaic be dressed or clothed:
a boy habited as a serving lad.
– PHRASES
force of habit the tendency for something done very frequently to become automatic:
he checks his appearance out of force of habit.
– 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.