used to

alternative usta · alternative useta

1. idiomaticnot comparablewith noun phraseAccustomed to, tolerant or accepting of.

   I got used to this weather.

   5 more examples

   I am very used to cleaning up other people’s mess.

   I became/grew quite used to his ways.

   “Well,” I says, “I cal'late a body could get used to Tophet if he stayed there long enough.” ¶ She flared up; the least mite of a slam at Doctor Wool was enough to set her going.

   1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC

   He was shivering a little, for he had always been used to sleeping in a proper bed, and by this time his coat had worn so thin and threadbare from hugging that it was no longer any protection to him.

   1921 June, Margery Williams, “The Velveteen Rabbit: Or How Toys Become Real”, in Harper’s Bazar, volume LVI, number 6 (2504 overall), New York, N.Y.: International Magazine Company, →ISSN, →OCLC

   Nobody's ever taught you how to live out on the street and now you're gonna have to get used to it.

   1965, Bob Dylan, Like a Rolling Stone

   Synonyms: wont to, accustomed to

alternative usta · alternative useta

1. no past participleno present participletemporal locationFormerly and habitually or repeatedly, but possibly no longer, did.

   My wife used not to be so hot-tempered.

   5 more examples

   You never used to like soap operas, did you?  I used to like that band long ago, and I was surprised I still do.  I used to know a guy from the UK who pronounced "mother" with the "r".  It used to be me who ran the company.  There used to be open fields here. Now it's a shopping mall.

   I always used to go to the seaside in August as a child.

   He used to live here, but moved away last year.

   The club used to be frequented by locals; then, after the "incident", it used to get raided by the cops.

   They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. Otherwise his pelt would not have been so perfect. And why else was he put away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had too.

   1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC