The Compact Oxford English Dictionary may refer to either of two books published by Oxford University Press:
- The Compact Editions of the Oxford English Dictionary, which contain the full text of the Oxford English Dictionary photographically reduced to fit in one or two volumes instead of up to 20 volumes for the conventional editions.
- The Compact Oxford English Dictionary of Current English, a single-volume general-purpose dictionary.
Famous quotes containing the words compact, oxford, english and/or dictionary:
“What compact mean you to have with us?
Will you be pricked in number of our friends,
Or shall we on, and not depend on you?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“During the first formative centuries of its existence, Christianity was separated from and indeed antagonistic to the state, with which it only later became involved. From the lifetime of its founder, Islam was the state, and the identity of religion and government is indelibly stamped on the memories and awareness of the faithful from their own sacred writings, history, and experience.”
—Bernard Lewis, U.S. Middle Eastern specialist. Islam and the West, ch. 8, Oxford University Press (1993)
“The English may not like music, but they absolutely love the noise it makes.”
—Thomas Beecham (1879–1961)
“If someday I make a dictionary of definitions wanting single words to head them, a cherished entry will be “To abridge, expand, or otherwise alter or cause to be altered for the sake of belated improvement, one’s own writings in translation.””
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)