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The quality or state of being negligent; lack of due diligence or care; omission of duty; habitual neglect; heedlessness.

A snug, comfortable, or cozy residence or situation; a retreat, or place of habitual resort; hence, those who occupy a nest, frequent a haunt, or are associated in the same pursuit; as, a nest of traitors; a nest of bugs. A little cottage, like some poor man's nest. Spenser.

Capable of living without light; as, nonphotobiotic plant cells, or cells which habitually live in darkness.

Giving particular attention; habitually attentive to what passes; as, an observing person; an observing mind. -- Ob*serv"ing*ly, adv.

His passion and animosity overruled his conscience. Clarendon. These [difficulties] I had habitually overruled. F. W. Newman.

An animal which habitually uses the nest of another, as the cowbird and the European cuckoo.

Habitually fretful; easily vexed or fretted; hard to please; apt to complain; querulous; petulant. "Her peevish babe." Wordsworth. She is peevish, sullen, froward. Shak.

. We possessed our selves of the kingdom of Naples. Addison. To possess our minds with an habitual good intention. Addison.

Frequently repeated or customary action; habitual performance; a succession of acts of a similar kind; usage; habit; custom; as, the practice of rising early; the practice of making regular entries of accounts; the practice of daily exercise. A heart . . . exercised with covetous practices. 2 Pet. ii. 14.…

Used habitually; learned by practice.

One who does anything customarily or habitually.

Not using prayer; habitually neglecting prayer to God; without prayer. "The next time you go prayerless to bed." Baxter. -- Prayer"less*ly, adv. -- Prayer"less*ness, n.

Habitual lewdness or prostitution of a woman; harlotry.

Apt to find fault; habitually complaining; disposed to murmur; as, a querulous man or people. Enmity can hardly be more annoying that querulous, jealous, exacting fondness. Macaulay.

A place to which one betakes himself habitually; a place of frequent assembly; a haunt. Far from all resort of mirth. Milton.

Using the right hand habitually, or more easily than the left.

One who drinks rum; an habitually intemperate person. [Low]

A track worn by a wheel or by habitual passage of anything; a groove in which anything runs. Also used figuratively. in a rut.

Any bird which habitually frequents the sea, as an auk, gannet, gull, tern, or petrel; also, all such birds, collectively.

Habitually silent; taciturn; reticent. [R.]