All 4 Uses
accustomed
in
The Age of Innocence
(Auto-generated)
- As for the cause of the commotion, she sat gracefully in her corner of the box, her eyes fixed on the stage, and revealing, as she leaned forward, a little more shoulder and bosom than New York was accustomed to seeing, at least in ladies who had reasons for wishing to pass unnoticed.†
Chpt 2accustomed to = used to (adapted to something, so it seems normal)
- But these pictures bewildered him, for they were like nothing that he was accustomed to look at (and therefore able to see) when he travelled in Italy; and perhaps, also, his powers of observation were impaired by the oddness of finding himself in this strange empty house, where apparently no one expected him.†
Chpt 9
- Louisa and I are very fond of our cousin—but it's hopeless to expect people who are accustomed to the European courts to trouble themselves about our little republican distinctions.†
Chpt 10
- When he entered the drawing-room before dinner May was stooping over the fire and trying to coax the logs to burn in their unaccustomed setting of immaculate tiles.†
Chpt 33 *unaccustomed = not used tostandard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unaccustomed means not and reverses the meaning of accustomed. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
Definitions:
-
(1)
(accustom) to make someone used to something
(used to is an expression that means someone has adapted to something, so it does not seem unusual)In professional environments, you may make a better impression by saying one is accustomed to something rather than one is used to something. - (2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)