wont

noun

No English definition recorded for this entry.

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /wʌnt/ / /wəʊnt/ / /wɒnt/

adj

Etymology: From Middle English wont, iwoned, from Old English ġewunod, past participle of ġewunian. Cognate with German gewohnt and Dutch gewend.

Accustomed or used (to or with a thing), accustomed or apt (to do something).
“He is wont to complain loudly about his job.”
“This is the ſuteltie of Satan, who vnder the shew of godly matters, deceaueth the vnaduyſed, as we are wont to ſay, that in the honye lyeth hidden the poiſon.”

noun

Etymology: From Middle English wont, from Old English ġewunod, past participle of ġewunian (“to be accustomed to, dwell”), the noun sense possibly arising via conflation of wone (“custom, habit, practice”) and the adjective wont. Compare German Low German Gewohnte (“custom, habit”), Dutch gewoonte, Swedish van. Likely related to wone, wonder, wean, and win.

One's habitual way of doing things; custom, habit, practice.
“He awoke at the crack of dawn, as was his wont.”
“[T]hey [Spartan youth] are by a ſudden alarum or watch-word, to be called out to their military motions, under ſky or covert, according to the ſeaſon, as was the Roman wont; […]”

verb

Etymology: From Middle English wonten (“to accustom”), from wont (adjective). See above.

To make (someone) used to; to accustom.
“I have heard it remarked by the old farmers, that when beasts are first transferred from one place to another, that if they keep them without food for two or three days, it will go far towards wonting them to their new situation.”
To be accustomed (to something), to be in the habit (of doing something).
“What be the ſweet delights of learning a treaſure, / That wont with Comick ſock to beautify / The painted Theaters, and fill with pleaſure / The liſtners eyes, and eares with melodie; […]”
“But by record of antique times I finde / That wemen wont in warres to beare most ſway, / And to all great exploites them ſelues inclind: […]”