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customs

[kuhs-tuhm]

Example Sentences Origin

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noun

a habitual practice; the usual way of acting in given circumstances.

habits or usages collectively; convention.

a practice so long established that it has the force of law.

such practices collectively.

Sociology. a group pattern of habitual activity usually transmitted from one generation to another.

EXPAND

toll; duty.

customs,

(used with a singular or plural verb) duties imposed by law on imported or, less commonly, exported goods.

(used with a singular verb) the government department that collects these duties.

(used with a singular verb) the section of an airport, station, etc., where baggage is checked for contraband and for goods subject to duty.

regular patronage of a particular shop, restaurant, etc.

the customers or patrons of a business firm, collectively.

10.

the aggregate of customers.

11.

(in medieval Europe) a customary tax, tribute, or service owed by peasants to their lord.

COLLAPSE

Customs Definition Dictionary.com Find Definitions For Any Word.Get Your Free Dictionary.com Toolbar.

adjective

12.

made specially for individual customers: custom shoes.

13.

dealing in things so made, or doing work to order: a custom tailor.

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Customs is always a great word to know.

So is interrobang. Does it mean:

a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.

a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.

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Origin:
1150–1200; Middle English custume < Anglo-French; Old French costume < Vulgar Latin *co(n)s(uē)tūmin-, replacing Latin consuētūdin- (stem of consuētūdō), equivalent to consuēt(us) accustomed, past participle of consuēscere (con- con- + suē- (akin to suus one's own) + -tus past participle suffix) + -ūdin- noun suffix; compare costume

Synonyms
1, 2. Custom, habit, practice mean an established way of doing things. Custom, applied to a community or to an individual, implies a more or less permanent continuance of a social usage: It is the custom to give gifts at Christmas time. Habit, applied particularly to an individual, implies such repetition of the same action as to develop a natural, spontaneous, or rooted tendency or inclination to perform it: to make a habit of reading the newspapers. Practice applies to a set of fixed habits or an ordered procedure in conducting activities: It is his practice to verify all statements.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To customs

Example Sentences

Alarid seemed well on his way to becoming a customs agency success story.

It is not unusual for even long-serving administrators to be treated as non-native guests who need to learn the local customs.

Customs tariffs were kept low, and foreign merchants welcomed.

EXPAND

Alarid seemed well on his way to becoming a customs agency success story.

It is not unusual for even long-serving administrators to be treated as non-native guests who need to learn the local customs.

Customs tariffs were kept low, and foreign merchants welcomed.

The different odors the elephants are perceiving may be caused by differences in diet or other customs.

Customs inspectors may have simply missed a smuggled bomb or batch of missiles.

In one episode, customs finds a human skull shipped through the mail.

Decades ago, there were habits and customs that boys and girls would take up as they became young men and women.

If you are interviewing at a sectarian university, be sensitive to its customs.

Today, he texts his mother while still waiting to clear customs.

For every case of ivory that is discovered by police it is anyone's guess how many slip through customs.

He was falling for a young opera singer and courting customs at that time would not permit a lady to enter a gentleman's bedroom.

When returning from abroad, you must complete a customs declaration form.

As part of his anti-corruption drive, the president has purged the customs service, putting in his own trusted people.

Essentially these primitive tribals seek to enforce their primitive customs on modern societies, no rational reasoning needed.

His story, had he told it to customs officials, would have struck them as fantastic-beyond belief.

Then, to the immigration to get cleared out of customs.

Customs and beliefs rarely hold consistent between cultures, much less eras.

Some of their customs and religious values have changed little over the past century.

The customs officers are now in place, but as the roads are closed there are no goods for them to stamp.

His obstinacy over the customs union was the last straw.

Like any group of humans, tribes often disagree about the virtue of their customs.

But it also stipulates that improper behaviour that flouts local customs may lead to fines, prosecution or deportation.

Ambrose, special customs officer, narrowly escaped being murdered last night.

No problems any time and no duty but make sure that you sort out the customs stuff.

Students will research a foreign culture's customs and write stories.

These customs are preserved through social learning within a single group and sometimes shared across groups.

Their customs are a world away from hers-she has learned to fish for piranhas and catch caimans, a small cousin of the crocodile.

Customs duties have fallen as trade barriers have been reduced.

Joining dogs that sniff out contraband in the customs halls, falcons have been enlisted.

The other thing is you really do trip over the history and social customs of a place when you investigate the food.

Airport to personally greet returning workers, who zoom through specially designated express lines for immigration and customs.

He does not abide by the laws and customs of our society.

See how much you know about worldwide burial customs by taking our quiz.

Marriage customs or the availability of reindeer to support a new family.

It can raise suspicions at customs and you'll get ripped off by a currency exchange.

Yakuza customs often involve extremely painful traditional tattoos and violent rituals.

Here, you can get in for the domestic but not the international ones because of immigration and customs.

It used to be standard procedure for customs officials to pour the stuff down the drain.

At all ages, it is important to know what your children are being exposed to as far as religious ideas or customs.

My thoughts turned to horror stories of corrupt customs officials and throngs of conmen that awaited me on the ground.

Smugglers paid one million dollars to undercover operatives posing as corrupt customs agents.

We had less than a half dozen border patrol agents and a few customs officers at the border.

One point not covered was the issue of customs stamps.

Learn how education and traditional customs affect the spread of.

Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity.

Roads have been upgraded, and customs procedures are less tape-bound than they were before.

Disrespect would be to allow the sites to be destroyed, to stand against the customs and wishes of the local culture.

Following longstanding local practice, he did not check in with the customs office further down the road.

Pakistan's customs department also restricts their transport into the country, regarding them as stolen goods.

In fact, our intention is to ensure that normal border controls are operational and that customs regulations are respected.

It shows he respects the people he meets and their customs.

They complain that it will require higher taxes to replace lost customs revenue.

And missionaries, while often well-intentioned, tried to stamp out native customs and beliefs.

Customs duties have been lowered substantially, but remain high by international standards.

Users are taught to adopt local customs such as putting their right hand over.

Stern-faced customs officials will pry them from the fingers of distraught border-crossing toddlers, if necessary.

Income taxes are more efficient than customs duties, but require a bigger initial bureaucracy.

If he sometimes failed, it was because he was too far steeped in the aristocratic customs of his islands.

Cynics note that the muddled customs regime in the breakaway region is lucrative for outsiders and insiders alike.

Sino-Japanese trade was held up by unusually thorough customs inspections.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

customs (ˈkʌstəmz)

—n
1.	duty on imports or exports
2.	the government department responsible for the collection of these duties
3.	the part of a port, airport, frontier station, etc, where baggage and freight are examined for dutiable goods and contraband
4.	the procedure for examining baggage and freight, paying duty, etc
5.	(as modifier): customs officer

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

custom

c.1200, "habitual practice," from O.Fr. costume, from V.L. *consuetumen, from L. consuetudinem (nom. consuetudo) "habit or usage," from consuetus, pp. of consuescere "accustom," from com- intens. prefix + suescere "become used to, accustom oneself," related to sui, gen. of suus "oneself," from PIE *swe-

EXPAND

"oneself" (see idiom). Replaced O.E. þeaw. Sense of a "regular" toll or tax on goods is early 14c.

COLLAPSE

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"Books treating of etiquette ... are often written by dancing-masters and Turveydrops and others knowing little of the customs of the best society of any land."

-Mrs. H. O. Ward

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