June 25 marks the 103rd birth anniversary of author George Orwell (born Eric Blair). Orwell lived less than half a century, but his words live on in his novels (1984 and Animal Farm) and also in the dictionary. See a sampling of the quotations that appear in the Unabridged Dictionary.
For a list of all thirty-two, select the Unabridged as your reference source, click on Advanced Search, type Orwell into the Author field, and click on Search.
chivy verb
"chivying the polo ball with small strokes"
cower verb
"they all cowered silently in their places, seeming to know in advance that some terrible thing was about to happen"
doublethink noun
"his mind slid away into the labyrinthine world of doublethink"
hot up verb
"the air raids began to hot up about the beginning of February"
knacker noun
"Jones will sell you to the knacker, who will cut your throat and boil you down for the foxhounds"
off one's own bat
"able to win the war off its own bat"
reportage noun
"seem to be saying that straightforward reportage is the only branch of literature that matters"
shiko noun
"bowing, touching the floor with her forehead in the full shiko of utter debasement"
taradiddle noun
"not only told her taradiddle about having hunted . . . she even came near believing it"
throw-out noun
"the attack on the government was led by envious throw-outs"
tractable adjective
"A wave of rebelliousness ran through the countryside. Bulls which had always been tractable suddenly turned savage"
wallah noun
"the book wallah was an itinerant peddler"
