: familiar with something so that it seems normal or usual
I'm not used to driving this car yet.
He is used to criticism.
The dog will need a few days to become used to its new home.
She quickly got used to the warm weather.
1
—used to say a situation existed in the past but does not exist now
My grandmother said winters used to be harder here.
2
—used to say something happened repeatedly in the past but does not happen now
We used to go out more often.
They used to eat a lot of junk food but now they only eat healthy foods.
Examples of used to in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
ABC News, 18 Apr. 2026
Snow and cold are not what people along the Front Range are used to this year.
—Alan Gionet, CBS News, 18 Apr. 2026
Morales, who grew up in Little Havana, used to get his hair cut as a kid at the barber shop in the mall.
—Andres Viglucci, Miami Herald, 17 Apr. 2026
The athletes were housed in run-down military barracks that had been used to house troops before being shipped overseas during World War II.
—Scott M. Reid, Oc Register, 17 Apr. 2026
Oil, which has remained above $90 a barrel in recent weeks, is also used to make plastic packaging for tomatoes.
—Vanessa Yurkevich, CNN Money, 17 Apr. 2026
Whereas Cheap Trick used to play up to 250 shows a year in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the band now averages about 75.
—Marc Ballon, Los Angeles Times, 17 Apr. 2026
Sometime around 2010, sophisticated malware known as Flame hijacked the mechanism that Microsoft used to distribute updates to millions of Windows computers around the world.
—Stephen Clark, ArsTechnica, 17 Apr. 2026
Fungicides are used to protect plants against fungal disease.
—Gabrielle Emanuel, NPR, 17 Apr. 2026
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
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Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
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Verb
Canadian police say Law, from the Toronto area, used a series of websites to market and sell sodium nitrite, a substance commonly used to cure meats that can be deadly if ingested.
—ABC News, 18 Apr. 2026
Snow and cold are not what people along the Front Range are used to this year.
—Alan Gionet, CBS News, 18 Apr. 2026
Morales, who grew up in Little Havana, used to get his hair cut as a kid at the barber shop in the mall.
—Andres Viglucci, Miami Herald, 17 Apr. 2026
The athletes were housed in run-down military barracks that had been used to house troops before being shipped overseas during World War II.
—Scott M. Reid, Oc Register, 17 Apr. 2026
Oil, which has remained above $90 a barrel in recent weeks, is also used to make plastic packaging for tomatoes.
—Vanessa Yurkevich, CNN Money, 17 Apr. 2026
Whereas Cheap Trick used to play up to 250 shows a year in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the band now averages about 75.
—Marc Ballon, Los Angeles Times, 17 Apr. 2026
Sometime around 2010, sophisticated malware known as Flame hijacked the mechanism that Microsoft used to distribute updates to millions of Windows computers around the world.
—Stephen Clark, ArsTechnica, 17 Apr. 2026
Fungicides are used to protect plants against fungal disease.
—Gabrielle Emanuel, NPR, 17 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Used to.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/used%20to. Accessed 18 Apr. 2026.
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