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routine

 - 4 dictionary results

rou⋅tine

  [roo-teen]
Use routine in a Sentence
–noun
1. a customary or regular course of procedure.
2. commonplace tasks, chores, or duties as must be done regularly or at specified intervals; typical or everyday activity: the routine of an office.
3. regular, unvarying, habitual, unimaginative, or rote procedure.
4. an unvarying and constantly repeated formula, as of speech or action; convenient or predictable response: Don't give me that brotherly-love routine!
5. Computers.
a. a complete set of coded instructions directing a computer to perform a series of operations.
b. a series of operations performed by the computer.
6. an individual act, performance, or part of a performance, as a song or dance, given regularly by an entertainer: a comic routine; a dance routine.
–adjective
7. of the nature of, proceeding by, or adhering to routine: routine duties.
8. dull or uninteresting; commonplace.
Origin:
1670–80; < F, deriv. of route route

Related forms:
rou⋅tine⋅ly, adverb
rou⋅tine⋅ness, noun

Synonyms:
8. habitual, ordinary, typical.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To routine
rou·tine   (rōō-tēn')   
n.  

  1. A prescribed, detailed course of action to be followed regularly; a standard procedure.

  2. A set of customary and often mechanically performed procedures or activities. See Synonyms at method.

  3. A set piece of entertainment, especially in a nightclub or theater: The audience laughed at the comedian's routine.

  4. Slang A particular kind of behavior or activity: Must you go into your hurt routine when you don't get your way?

  5. Computer Science A set of programming instructions designed to perform a specific limited task.

adj.  

  1. In accord with established procedure: a routine check of passports.

  2. Habitual; regular: made his routine trip to the store.

  3. Having no special quality; ordinary: a routine day.


[French, from route, route, from Old French; see route.]
rou·tine'ly adv., rou·tin'ism n., rou·tin'ist n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

routine  (n.)
1676, from Fr. routine "usual course of action, beaten path" from route "way, path, course" (see route) + subst. suffix -ine. Theatrical sense is from 1926. The adj. is attested from 1817, from the noun.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Computing Dictionary

routine
subroutine

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
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