by force of habit

by force of habit

Because one does or has done something habitually. Used to describe an unconscious mistake that results from following one's routine rather than choosing the correct action for the circumstances. After living next door to Anna for 50 years, I call our new neighbor "Anna" by force of habit.
See also: by, force, habit, of
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

by force of habit

owing to a tendency to do something that has become a habit. After I retired, I kept getting up and getting dressed each morning by force of habit.
See also: by, force, habit, of
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • force of habit
  • wear one's heart on one's sleeve, to
  • make a habit of
  • make a habit of (doing something)
  • make a habit/practice of something
  • be dead on (one's) feet
  • dead on (one's) feet
  • dead on feet
  • dead on one's feet
  • dead on your feet
References in classic literature
"If they had known that you wished it, the entertainment would have been put off," said the prince, who, like a wound-up clock, by force of habit said things he did not even wish to be believed.
War and Peace
As Miss Barlow rattled away cheerfully, he crumpled up the copy and tossed it into the waste-paper basket; but not before he had, automatically and by force of habit, altered the word "God" to the word "circumstances."
The Wisdom Of Father Brown
Others do not necessarily mean it, but just offer it anyway by force of habit.
Lip service no more
By force of habit, I turned to Rizal, even if I knew he had never visited Russia.
Berezowsky, Rizal's Russian friend
This is the routine cruelty of a security cabal, its humanity withered by years in power: it is genocide by force of habit. ("Counter-Insurgency on the Cheap," London Review of Books, August 15, 2004)
Alex de Waal and Sudan's Bashir: Irony or perverse self-congratulation?
By force of habit, Al-Basheer starts his day with reading email and organizing his calendar, and feels hapless without his mobile, laptop and iPad, even if he is on a holiday.
Driven to succeed
But by force of habit, one might expect the switch to always be on auto and thus not bother to double-check.
No one heard Helios Mayday call
And I, like millions of mankind, walk and move, generally by force of habit, in a long caravan that ascends and descends, encamps, and then proceeds on its way.
Season of Migration to the Afterlife
"What happened is that, by force of habit, I drove by the bakery today.
Temptation, a place to encounter God
True to type, my offspring frequented food courts and bookshops, were approached by the odd child with palms outstretched - and by force of habit put in some spare change just to be left alone and forget that such aberrations of society exist.
Exciting world of adventure
To learn whether the apes were carrying the tools simply by force of habit or because they enjoyed doing so, Call and Mulcahy performed another test, in which they repeatedly removed the grapes after a first showing behind the Plexiglas.
Mental leap: what apes can teach us about the human mind
Gathering up the radio, his C-9 (and by force of habit, all the spent brass casings), Yeo started to crawl back to safety.
Esprit de Corps presents Canadian peacekeepers at war: untold stories of blue berets in battle
They ring their mates in the council who in turn badger the cops who, by force of habit, send in the Land Rovers and scare the bejesus out of everyone.
ULSTERMAN OF THE PEOPLE: I'm taking a stand over police stalling tactics
We condition ourselves by force of habit to trivialize those things we don't fully understand and which we cannot otherwise adequately appreciate.
Transplantation of species