Break the Habit
Today at lunch we had hamburger steak and pasta. Sometimes when we have this or pork cutlets, the cafeteria workers give us knives and forks. I grew up using knifes and forks, but I have lived so long in Korea that I have forgotten how to use them. It feels strange and wrong to use a knife and fork. I am too used to using chopsticks and a spoon. It is difficult to break the habit.
Breaking a habit means to stop doing something you do regularly. A lot of definitions of break the habit say that it is stopping a bad habit, but the phrase does not need to be used like that. You can also use it to talk about neutral or good habits. Using chopsticks and spoons is a neutral habit.
Example: I bite my nails when I watch football. I had to stop watching to break the habit.
The phrase can be traced back to a 1670 handbook of proverbs and can be attested to 1611: “A bad custom [habit] is like a good cake, better broken than kept.” However, I like the quote from Rev. Watson C. Blake: “Bad habits are like a comfortable bed; easy to get into, but hard to get out of.”
The phrase kick the habit dates to early 1900s. It is almost always used in relation to bad habits. It is an allusion to kicking a ball away from yourself. You are getting rid of the ball by kicking it. So, kick the habit is like trying to kick a habit away.
Example: One of the hardest things she ever did was to kick the habit of smoking.
See Also: As they are wont to do, Definition of Insanity, Live your best life, Jess, Stone, Anita
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Reference:
https://books.google.co.kr/books?id=7PMZJqSR4sAC&pg=PA31&lpg=PA31&dq=bad+custom+is+like+a+good+cake,+better+broken+than+kept.&source=bl&ots=AVfvKEMxP4&sig=ACfU3U07dq2yWa8EBYUxoLOlA9FIwkvWVg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwixzpnSqcD0AhXTc3AKHQsBDYMQ6AF6BAgQEAM#v=onepage&q=bad%20custom%20is%20like%20a%20good%20cake%2C%20better%20broken%20than%20kept.&f=false
https://writingexplained.org/idiom-dictionary/break-a-habit
https://www.theidioms.com/kick-the-habit/