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:
“... in a history of spiritual rupture, a social compact built on fantasy and collective secrets, poetry becomes more necessary than ever: it keeps the underground aquifers flowing; it is the liquid voice that can wear through stone.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“The logical English train a scholar as they train an engineer. Oxford is Greek factory, as Wilton mills weave carpet, and Sheffield grinds steel. They know the use of a tutor, as they know the use of a horse; and they draw the greatest amount of benefit from both. The reading men are kept by hard walking, hard riding, and measured eating and drinking, at the top of their condition, and two days before the examination, do not work but lounge, ride, or run, to be fresh on the college doomsday.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The calmest husbands make the stormiest wives.”
—17th-century English proverb, pt. 1, quoted in Isaac d’Israeli, Curiosities of Literature (1834)
“He who eats alone chokes alone.”
—Arab proverb, quoted in H.L. Mencken’s Dictionary of Quotations (1942)