CUSTOMS • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Customs

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/kˈəstəmz/ Listen

noun

customs n. pl.

Money collected under a tariff; a duty imposed on imported goods.

Synonyms: customs duty, custom, impost.

The government department administering the collection of import tariffs. Used with as singular verb.

That area within an airport, sea port, or other border station where freight or the baggage of travellers is checked for dutiable materials or contraband; as, it took an hour to get through customs.

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Etymology of 'Customs'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Customs" Quotes from Famous Books

... are millions of Germans conversant with the language, laws, and customs of the people. Many of them have been settled there for generations. They are passionately attached to their race, and neither unfriendly nor useless to the country of their adoption. The trade, commerce, and industry of the European provinces are largely in their ...

— The Inside Story Of The Peace Conference • Emile Joseph Dillon

... must also have discovered White's and Blakely's arrangement for avoiding "scrutiny" of their goods shipped into Canada, for on July 29 there was an acknowledgment by the Collector of Customs of the Port of Queenston of certain information supplied by George Wells Comstock, William Henry Comstock, and Baldwin L. Judson on goods ...

— History of the Comstock Patent Medicine Business and Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills • Robert B. Shaw

... don't you? They are what little boys do up their breeches with. Your letter had many things in it hard to be understood: the puns were ready and Swift-like; but don't you begin to be melancholy in the midst of Eastern customs! "The mind does not easily conform to foreign usages, even in trifles: it requires something that it has been familiar with." That begins one of Dr. Hawkesworth's papers in the "Adventurer," and is, I think, as sensible a ...

— The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 5 • Edited by E. V. Lucas

... enter seriously upon this task. In every other respect, the naturalized Italian tries to become a good citizen, and adjust himself to the laws and the customs of his new country. Why should he not do this in regard to bird life? It is not too much to ask, nor is it too much to exact. Does the Italian workman, or store-keeper who makes his living by honest toil enjoy breaking our bird laws, enjoy irritating and ...

— Our Vanishing Wild Life - Its Extermination and Preservation • William T. Hornaday

... way, and before we reached the Italian frontier at Ventimiglia, had lost all shame and failed to connect there with the French train for the rest of our journey. So, instead of having barely time to affirm our innocence of tobacco, spirits, or perfumes to the customs officers, and to wash down a sandwich with a cup of coffee at the restaurant, we had an hour and forty minutes at Ventimiglia, which I partly spent in vain attempts to buy the poverty of the inspector ...

— Roman Holidays and Others • W. D. Howells

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