Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, sometimes referred to simply as Brewer's, is a reference work containing definitions and explanations of many famous phrases, allusions and figures, whether historical or mythical.
The "Revised and Updated Edition" from the 1890s is now in the public domain, and web-based versions are available online.
The most recent version is the 19th edition, published in August 2012 by Chambers Harrap Publishers.
Read more about Brewer's Dictionary Of Phrase And Fable: History, Brewer's Dictionary of Modern Phrase and Fable, Other Special Editions
Famous quotes containing the words dictionary, phrase and/or fable:
“The much vaunted male logic isn’t logical, because they display prejudices—against half the human race—that are considered prejudices according to any dictionary definition.”
—Eva Figes (b. 1932)
“There is something ridiculous and even quite indecent in an individual claiming to be happy. Still more a people or a nation making such a claim. The pursuit of happiness ... is without any question the most fatuous which could possibly be undertaken. This lamentable phrase “the pursuit of happiness” is responsible for a good part of the ills and miseries of the modern world.”
—Malcolm Muggeridge (1903–1990)
“But there’s another knowledge that my heart destroys
As the fox in the old fable destroyed the Spartan boy’s
Because it proves that things both can and cannot be;
That the swordsmen and the ladies can still keep company;
Can pay the poet for a verse and hear the fiddle sound,
That I am still their servant though all are underground.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)