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.
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“Take pains ... to write a neat round, plain hand, and you will find it a great convenience through life to write a small and compact hand as well as a fair and legible one.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“I wonder anybody does anything at Oxford but dream and remember, the place is so beautiful. One almost expects the people to sing instead of speaking. It is all ... like an opera.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“The apparent rulers of the English nation are like the imposing personages of a splendid procession: it is by them the mob are influenced; it is they whom the spectators cheer. The real rulers are secreted in second-rate carriages; no one cares for them or asks after them, but they are obeyed implicitly and unconsciously by reason of the splendour of those who eclipsed and preceded them.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)
“I am hungry and you give me
a dictionary to decipher.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)