inveterate

comparative more inveterate · superlative most inveterate

1. Firmly established from having been around for a long time; of long standing.

   an inveterate habit

   4 more examples

   Near-synonyms: deep-rooted, ingrained, ineradicable, indelible, radicated, chronic, permanent

   an inveterate disease

   a Heaven's radiance of justice, prophetic, clearly of Heaven, discernible behind all these confused worldwide entanglements, of Landlord interests, Manufacturing interests, Tory-Whig interests, and who knows what other interests, expediencies, vested interests, established possessions, inveterate Dilettantisms, Midas-eared Mammonism.

   1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “ch. 3, Manchester Insurrection”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book I (Proem)

   In Montpelier, where this prison stands, the inveterate prejudice against prisoners has been swept away.

   1911, Morrison I. Swift, “Humanizing the Prisons,”, in The Atlantic

   Synonyms: long-standing, deep-rooted, ingrained, ineradicable, indelible, radicated, chronic, permanent · Antonyms: transient, temporary, momentary, fleeting, impermanent, shifting, acute, novel

2. Having had a habit (usually a bad habit) for a long time.

   an inveterate traveller

   5 more examples

   Near-synonyms: hardened, chronic, dyed-in-the-wool

   an inveterate idler;   an inveterate gambler;   an inveterate smoker

   "Say no more," interrupted Henrietta: "the very mention of that inveterate gossip accounts for every thing. Do let me, my dear Mrs. Courtenaye," and she took her hand with a kindness that was irresistible, "let me warn you against allowing your happiness to be the sport of a woman like that;...

   1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 100–101

   [S]he offered kisses to a stranger so confidingly that the most inveterate bachelor relented.

   1868–1869, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, “chapter 45”, in Little Women: […], (please specify |part=1 or 2), Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC

   Like many lonely people, he was an inveterate hoarder, making and surrounding himself with objects, barriers against the demands of human intimacy.

   2017, Olivia Laing, The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone, New York: Picador, →ISBN, page 6

   Synonyms: hardened, chronic, dyed-in-the-wool · Antonyms: casual, sometime, occasional, dilettante

3. Malignant; virulent; spiteful.

   1765–70, Henry Brooke, The Fool of Quality; or, The History of Henry, Earl of Moreland This his lordship perused with a countenance, and scrutiny, apparently inveterate.

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   A man of mild manners can form no idea of inveterate revenge or cruelty[…]

   1748, David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of morals, London: Oxford University Press, published 1973, § 15

   As to your frequent remarks in your letters about pacifying my friend, I have done everything I could and tried every expedient; but he is inveterate against you to a surprising degree, on what suspicions, though I think you have been told, you shall yet learn from me when you come.

   1920, Cicero, translated by Evelyn Shirley Shuckburgh, The Letters of Cicero: The Whole Extant Correspondence in Chronological Order, volume 1 (hardcover), London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., page 11

present singular third person inveterates · participle present inveterating · participle past inveterated · past inveterated

1. obsoleteTo fix and settle after a long time; to entrench.

   "none of these Princes do use to maintaine any armies together, which are annex'd and inveterated with the governments of the provinces, as were the armies of the Roman Empire. "

   1640, Edward Dacres, translation of The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli, Chapter XIX http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/15772

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   "the vulgar conceived that now there was an end given, and a consummation to superstitious prophecies, the belief of fools, but the talk sometimes of wise men, and to an ancient tacit expectation which had by tradition been infused and inveterated into men's minds."

   1622, Francis Bacon, The History of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh

   The foregoing elements of disunion are inveterated by the constituent formation of our national legislature. In the French chambers the members are all Frenchmen ; but our members of Congress are effectively Georgians, New-Yorkers, Carolinians, Pennsylvanians, &c.

   1851 January, author unknown, "The Philosophy of the American Union, in The United States Magazine and Democratic Review, page 16