ingrained
in-GRAYNDadjMeaning firmly fixed by long habit; deep-seated
Memory hook IN the GRAIN: it won’t come out. Nana Lou scrubs and scrubs, but the old jam stain has soaked deep into the wood grain and won’t come out. Like an old habit, it is ingrained.
Saying “please” and “thank you” was ingrained in us from an early age.
In context The habit of rising at dawn was so ingrained in the old farmer that, years after he sold the farm, he still woke at five every morning.
Similar deep-rooted, entrenched, fixed, deep-seated
Opposite shallow, superficial