Also 6 -rye, 6–7 -rie, 7 costomary. [ad. med.L. custumārius, -omārius, repr. L. consuētūdinārius, f. consuētūdin-em: see CUSTOM and -ARY.]
1. According to custom; commonly used or practised; usual, habitual, accustomed, wonted.
1607. Shaks., Cor., II. iii. 93. I haue heere the Customarie Gowne.
1645. Rutherford, Tryal & Tri. Faith (1845), 116. Customary running lengtheneth the breath.
1705. Stanhope, Paraphr. (ed. 2), III. 525. The utter Insensibility and Obduration of the Heart and Conscience, which customary sinning introduces.
1712. W. Rogers, Voy., 33. Such Weather is customary as we draw near the Line.
1838. Lytton, Alice, I. 94. Recovering his customary self-possession.
1863. Geo. Eliot, Romola, I. xx. It was customary to have very long troops of kindred and friends at the … betrothal.
† b. transf. of persons. Obs. (Cf. habitual.)
1796. Pegge, Anonym. (1809), 189. It falls not within the compass of my remembrance, that a customary Dram-drinker ever left it off.
2. Established by or depending on custom.
1660. Willsford, Scales Comm., 36. The customary measure of any place being known … to find how much it will make by a greater or a lesser measure of another place.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 161. To the Greek the family was a religious and customary institution binding the members together by a tie inferior in strength to that of friendship.
† 3. Perfunctory or mechanical from habitual performance. Obs.
1654. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 349. In her devotions, she is serious, not Customary.
[1670. Clarendon, Contempl. on Ps., Tracts (1727), 712. There is a customary recital of prayers, and as customary an unconcernment in them.]
4. Law. a. Liable, subject to, or under customs or dues of various kinds, as customary tenants (med.L. custumarii), tenure, lands, etc. But in later usage this has come to be taken as: Holding or held by custom (e.g., of the manor). b. Relating to, depending on, or established by custom as contrasted with general law.
Customary mill = Custom mill: see CUSTOM 6.
1523. Fitzherb., Surv., Prol. Than may the lorde … haue parfyte knowledge … who is his freholders, copye holders, customarye tenaunte, or tenaunt at his wyll. Ibid., 15. They … ought to haue a customarie role, wherin is euery mannes lande contayned, and what rent, customes, and seruyces euery man ought to pay and do.
1577. Harrison, England, II. ix. (1877), I. 202. Customarie law consisteth of certeine laudable customes vsed in some priuat countrie.
1592. West, 1st Pt. Symbol., § 103 C, The said customarie lands and tenements.
1620. J. Wilkinson, Coroners & Sherifes, 145. If any customarie tenant or copiholder hold two parcels of land by herriot service.
1709. Lond. Gaz., No. 4505/4. The several Manors of Bovey-Tracey [etc.] … with the Market and Fairs of Bovey-Tracey aforesaid, and the Customary Mills there.
1789. Bentham, Princ. Legisl., xix. § 28. The laws … may subsist either in the form of statute or in that of customary law.
1858. Ld. St. Leonards, Handy Bk. Prop. Law, xx. 151. Property of every description, including copyhold and customary lands.
1880. Times, 9 Aug., 3/5. A custom had existed, which had now become a part of the customary estate, that the customary tenants should win and get the minerals under their own tenements.
b. Customary court: formerly in England, a manorial court which exercised jurisdiction over the copyhold tenants of the manor, and administered the custom of the manor as contrasted with the common law. It is distinguished from the court baron which exercised a jurisdiction over free-holders. Customary holder, a customary tenant; so customary-hold.
1523. Fitzherb., Surv., xviii. (1539), 39. Copye holder, Customary holder.
1628. Coke, On Litt., 58 a. A customary Court, and that doth concerne Copiholders, and therein the Lord or his Steward is the Judge. Now as there can be no Court baron without freeholders, so there cannot bee this kind of customary Court without Copiholders or Customary holders.
1844. Williams, Real Prop. (1877), 225. Any freehold, copyhold or customary-hold property.
1876. K. E. Digby, Real Property, v. § 6. 256.
† 5. Of the nature of customs-duty or tribute.
1677. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 43. Toll gatherers … ready to search and exact a customary Tribute for the Mogul.
6. as sb. A customary ceremony.
1756. S. Richardson, Corresp. (1804), III. 231. The little parting customaries are not to be mentioned.
