Emily Dickinson Lexicon

AD-DICT', v.t. [L. 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 Cor. xv. 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.