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Addict


ADDICT', adjective Addicted. [Not much used.]

ADDICT', verb transitive [Latin addico, to devote, from ad and dico, to dedicate.]

To apply one's self habitually; to devote time and attention by customary or constant practice; sometimes in a good sense.

They have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints. 1 Corinthians 16:15.

More usually, in a bad sense, to follow customarily, or devote, by habitually practicing that which is ill; as, a man is addicted to intemperance.

To addict one's self to a person, a sense borrowed from the Romans, who used the word for assigning debtors in service to their creditors, is found in Ben Jonson, but is not legitimate in English.