All 5 Uses of
accustomed
in
A Thousand Acres
- For me, it was a pleasure like a secret hoard of coins—Rose, whom I adored, sitting against me in the hot musty velvet luxury of the car's interior, the click of the gravel on its undercarriage, the sensation of the car swimming in the rutted road, the farms passing every minute, reduced from vastness to insignificance by our speed; the unaccustomed sense of leisure; most important, though, the reassuring note of my father's and mother's voices commenting on what they saw—he on the progress of the yearly work and the condition of the animals in the pastures, she on the look and size of the house and garden, the colors of the buildings.†
p. 5.5unaccustomed = 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.
- She looked the way I felt, used up but strengthened by the unaccustomed exercise, already aimed toward a good night's sleep.†
p. 97.2 *
- I think that though I was only fourteen and not accustomed to judging my life or my father, or demanding more of our world than it offered of itself, I knew exactly what was to come, how unrelenting it would be, the working round of the seasons, the isolation, the responsibility for Caroline, who was only six.†
p. 136.1accustomed to = used to (adapted to something, so it seems normal)
- I gave up on it, and all the way to Mason City, I couldn't get accustomed to the sense of danger I felt, of imminent disaster.†
p. 143.2
- Nothing would wake me from this unaccustomed dream of my body faster than opening my eyes.†
p. 162.3unaccustomed = 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.
Definition:
to make someone used to something
(used to is an expression that means someone has adapted to something, so it does not seem unusual)
(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.