Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A proverbial expression; a proverb.
- noun An often-used word or phrase.
- noun One that represents a type, class, or quality.
- noun An object of notoriety or interest.
- noun An epithet.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A word or phrase used proverbially; especially, a saying used in mockery or disparagement; a satirical or contemptuous proverb.
- noun Hence An object of general reproach or condemnation; a common subject of derision or opprobrium.
- noun Synonyms Axiom, Maxim, etc. See
aphorism .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A common saying; a proverb; a saying that has a general currency.
- noun The object of a contemptuous saying.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun a
proverb orproverbial expression, commonsaying ; a frequently usedword orphrase - noun a person who, or a thing that
represents something with specifiedcharacteristics ,byspel - noun An
object ofnotoriety orcontempt . - noun a
nickname orepithet - noun by extension an
object ofscorn orderision
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a condensed but memorable saying embodying some important fact of experience that is taken as true by many people
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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March 2nd, 2009 at 7: 50 pm antisera apart appropriation bankrupts begin byword counterparts coupler cranes devotedly Egyptian ellipse elm Epicurean Kidde miscarriage pixel rightfulness Samuels shutout Sonora substrate toughness buy generic viagraC/a absenteeism countess curious founts gab perusers playhouse prototypically summation.
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The "Manchester school" of political economy has long since passed into reproach if not obloquy with people for whom a byword is a potent weapon, and perhaps the easiest they can handle, and
Seven English Cities William Dean Howells 1878
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'All's well' over and over again; 'twas a kind of byword with him.
Kent Knowles: Quahaug Joseph Crosby Lincoln 1907
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Dario Fo once complained that "political theater has become a kind of byword for boring theater," he certainly wasn't talking about himself.
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Only last month, Brown described Afghanistan as a "byword" for corruption.
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Only last month, Brown described Afghanistan as a "byword" for corruption.
Irish Blogs 2009
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There j'ai fait la connaissance de la mere de Kousma [Footnote: A jocular translation into French of a Russian slang byword "Kousma's Mother," popularly used to indicate a difficult plight.
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"Back in the early 1970s, it was a kind of byword for industrial-relations strife, poor quality, unreliability.
NPR Topics: News 2009
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"Access" to credit was the byword of banking regulation under Labour in the UK.
Gordon Brown's economic "genius" exposed Not a sheep 2009
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Beirut was at the center of the Lebanese war of 1975-90, when "Lebanonization" became a byword for violent disintegration.
On the Eastern Shore Michael Young 2011
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