- habit
- nounADJECTIVE▪ annoying, antisocial (BrE), bad, dangerous, destructive, dirty, disconcerting (BrE), disgusting, filthy, horrible, irritating, nasty, poor, terrible, unfortunate▪
Life has a nasty habit of repeating itself.
▪poor eating habits
▪ charming (often ironic), endearing, good▪one of his more endearing habits
▪her charming habit of setting fire to cats
▪ curious, eccentric, odd, peculiar, strange, unusual, weird▪ unhealthy▪The children are developing unhealthy eating habits.
▪ healthful (AmE), healthy▪ lifelong, old▪ daily, normal, regular, usual▪ ingrained▪deeply ingrained habits of thought
▪ nervous▪It was a nervous habit she'd had for years.
▪ expensive▪ personal, sexual, social▪I found some of his personal habits rather disconcerting.
▪ lifestyle▪Healthy lifestyle habits begin when you're young.
▪ mental▪Mental habits are not easily changed.
▪ buying, shopping, spending▪an effort to change the buying habits of the British public
▪ dietary, drinking, eating, feeding, food▪ exercise, sleeping, work▪The pills affected your sleeping habits.
▪Ellington's work habits were a marvel to all.
▪ reading, viewing▪women's television viewing habits
▪ cocaine, crack, drug, gambling, heroin, smoking▪I'm trying to kick the smoking habit.
VERB + HABIT▪ be in, have▪She had been in the habit of drinking five or six cups of coffee a day.
▪She has some very annoying habits.
▪He had an irritating habit of singing tunelessly around the house.
▪ acquire, adopt, cultivate, develop, establish, fall into, form, get in, get into, make▪I had fallen into my old bad habit of leaving everything until the last minute.
▪Try to get into good habits and eat regular healthy meals.
▪Make a habit of noting down any telephone messages.
▪ become▪Don't let eating between meals become a habit.
▪ break (yourself of), get out of, give up, kick▪a difficult habit to break
▪You must break yourself of the habit.
▪I got out of the habit of getting up early.
▪ change▪ support▪He turned to crime to support his habit.
HABIT + VERB▪ change▪The nation's eating habits have changed significantly.
PREPOSITION▪ by habit▪Much of what we do in daily life is done by habit.
▪ from habit▪I just did it from habit.
▪ out of habit▪I sat in my old seat purely out of habit.
PHRASES▪ a creature of habit▪Horses are creatures of habit and like to have a daily routine.
▪ force of habit▪Mr Norris woke up early from force of habit.
▪ the habit of a lifetime▪It's hard to change the habit of a lifetime.
▪ a hard habit to break▪Caffeine can be a hard habit to break.
▪ old habits die hard
Collocations dictionary. 2013.
