Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable

For over a hundred years 'Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable' has been one of the best-known and best-loved works of reference in the English language. But the book has not stood still for a hundred years. Although it is solidly based on the prodigious learning of Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, who first compiled it in 1870, this useful volume has always kept up with the times and with English as a world-wide language. Each revision has seen the judicious addition of new phrases to Brewer's firm foundation. The ephemeral has always been avoided but every phrase that has stood the test of time and become established in general use is included with both explanation and source. The present revised edition has about 300 new entries, while many of those already existing have been expanded and modified with the aim of increasing their interest and informativeness. New developments in scholarship have also been noted and have been treated with the familiar disarming quirkiness. With suggestions coming to the author from correspondents all over the world, more of those special "oddities" have been included.