Definition of "ingrown" [in•grown]

• Grown abnormally into the flesh: an ingrown toenail. (adjective)
• Inbred; innate: ingrown habits. (adjective)
• Insular; self-contained: "the small, ingrown world of lower Manhattan” ( Forbes). (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Truth, purity, firmness, love to Jesus, all that belongs to a formal conversion and more, is centralized thus in the soul, as a kind of ingrown habit."
• "Cheever's flickering back and forth between a yearning for light and the destructive lure (alcoholic, carnal) of darkness is rendered on a scale at once "ingrown" and vast."
• "Transdermal electrolysis can be particularly beneficial for treating conditions such as ingrown hairs and distorted follicles."