CUSTOMARY

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does customary mean? 

• CUSTOMARY (adjective)
  The adjective CUSTOMARY has 2 senses:

1. in accordance with convention or custom

2. commonly used or practiced; usual

  Familiarity information: CUSTOMARY used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CUSTOMARY (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

In accordance with convention or custom

Context example:

sealed the deal with the customary handshake

Similar:

conventional (following accepted customs and proprieties)

Derivation:

custom (a specific practice of long standing)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Commonly used or practiced; usual

Synonyms:

accustomed; customary; habitual; wonted

Context example:

with her wonted candor

Similar:

usual (occurring or encountered or experienced or observed frequently or in accordance with regular practice or procedure)

Derivation:

custom (accepted or habitual practice)

 Context examples 

He seemed pleased when I nodded my head with the customary “Yes, sir.”

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Employment involving the standard or customary working time.

(Full Time Employment, NCI Thesaurus/CDISC)

I shook my head in token of my ignorance, and Ebbits looked compassion at me, while Zilla snorted her customary contempt.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Was this a customary incident in the life of a solicitor's clerk sent out to explain the purchase of a London estate to a foreigner?

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He exchanged the whip for the customary club.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

No plume or nobloy fluttered from his plain tilting salade, and even his lance was devoid of the customary banderole.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I am not in the habit of being taken to task in the fashion which seems to be customary with your lordship.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It offended him both as a lawyer and as a lover of the sane and customary sides of life, to whom the fanciful was the immodest.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

In fact, the grey cub was not given to thinking—at least, to the kind of thinking customary of men.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Employment involving less than the standard or customary working time.

(Part Time Employment, NCI Thesaurus)