Jokes in Chambers Dictionary

[Segilla]

Despite trying a Grand Read', but havng covered only a fraction of its pages so far, none of the jokes mentioned in the Preface have been found.

Does anybody know of any apart frorn the one cited, 'eclair' (a cake long in shape but short in duration)?

[shaneystar2]

* middle-aged - 'between youth and old age, variously reckoned to suit the reckoner'
* charity begins at home - 'usually an excuse for not allowing it to get abroad'
* kazoo - 'a would-be musical instrument'
* jay walker - 'a contemptuous word applied to careless pedestrians by motorists who have to avoid running them down'
* Land o' the Leal - 'the home of the blessed after death - heaven not Scotland'
* sea-serpent - 'an enormous marine animal of serpent-like form, frequently seen and described by credulous sailors, imaginative landsmen and common liars'
* noose - 'a snare or bond generally, especially hanging or marriage'
* end-reader - 'one who peeps at the end of a novel to see if she got him'
* double-locked - 'locked by two turns of the key, as in very few locks, but many novels'
* ghost word - 'a word that has originated in the blunder of a scribe or printer - common in dictionaries'

[Quizmonkey]

Look up mullet and boy-band too (assuming you have the latest edition).

I believe a full list of the funnies can be found at Chambers' website.

[gen2]

The Chambers' webpage is here

http://www.chambersharrap.co.uk/chambers/gigglossary/definitions.shtml

though it doesn't include the latest entries mentioned by Quizmonkey (mullet, boy-band)

And here you can make up and submit your own humorous definitions

http://www.chambersharrap.co.uk/chambers/gigglossary/