Definitions
Wiktionary
- n. Babbitt metal.
- v. transitive To line with Babbitt metal to reduce friction.
- n. A person who subscribes complacently to materialistic middle-class ideals
Etymologies
- Named after the title character in Sinclair Lewis' 1922 novel, Babbit. Also popularised by the George and Ira Gershwin song "The Babbitt and the Bromide," featured first in the 1927 musical "Funny Face" and later in the film Ziegfeld Follies (1945). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Tin forms an important part of many alloys such as babbitt, Britannia metal, bronze, gun metal and bearing metals.”
“By day you struggle with the German for "babbitt-lined bearing" (Weißmetallfutterlager, of course), by night you worry how you'll pay the bills.”
“But if you have no extra plug you must remove the first one and refill it with babbitt.”
“The segments that partly envelop the cross-head pin and crank-pin, and are section lined in two directions, producing crossing section lines, or small squares, show that the brasses are lined with babbitt metal, which is represented by this kind of cross-hatching.”
“Innumerable proportions of metals are marketed under the name of babbitt.”
“_Tin_ is the principal part of _babbitt_ and _solder_.”
“A commonly used babbitt is composed of 89 per cent tin, 8 per cent antimony and 3 per cent of copper.”
“The father of the officer, Lieut. Ross, was a babbitt manufacturer in Leicester; he had been a very few months in business when the war broke out.”
“Roughly a third of the tin consumed within the United States goes into tin-plate, a third into solder and babbitt metal, and a third into miscellaneous uses.”
“Next in importance is its use in the making of solder and of babbitt or bearing metal.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘babbitt’.
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TECH - metals and alloys
embrittle, braze, nickel alloy, metallize, Inconel, eutectic, metalize, vapor pressure, corrosion-resistant, alloy, stainless steel, neutron flux and 262 more...
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bywords
The height of fame, or infamy, is when your name becomes a byword for something. I'm not 100 percent sure about the technical name for this trope, but it seems to be antonomasia. Suggestions are mo...
einstein, romeo, casanova, lothario, sherlock holmes, shakespeare, tolstoy, rembrandt, leonardo, mozart, beethoven, howard hughes and 116 more...
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trademark
all of these are from 7 English
dictionaries and Macquarie dictionary
I havent listed capitalized ones yet
but Viagra would be one and common
words like sterling a sub-machi...agene, adware, airbus, alnico, amberina, amarone, apiezon, aspirin, atebrin, atebrine, autocue, autoharp and 774 more...
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ahmedabad
babbitt, Pickwickian, tartuffery, bumbledom, panjandrum, schadenfreude, pathological
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Tolland's list
Those I've come across and try to keep fresh within my mind.
clandestine, dysphoric, indictive, vigil, fractious, assiduous, indefatigable, ubiquitous, insidious, paroicous, aplomb, sangfroid and 654 more...
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Literary works embracing Mythic America
Great and small works, Moby Dick, the works of Walt Whitman, poems of Emily Dickinson, and so on. If you are a wordie, you know what I mean!
the octopus, warlock, moby-dick, huckleberry finn, ragged dick, "leaves of grass,..., uncle tom's cabin, vineland, angels in america, babbitt
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OneBlueSun's Words
venial, ersatz, droll, maudlin, risible, conspectus, reticent, irenic, efface, equanimity, tractable, fictile and 76 more...
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Mr. Wrenn, I presume
Names from Sinclair Lewis
babbitt, wrenn, dodsworth, vickers, gantry, planish, timberlane, arrowsmith, windrip, edgeways, gimmitch, doremus and 15 more...
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Machinery Related Words
Words related to steam engines and other machines.
crank, clutch, eccentric, d-valve, stanchion, snifter valve, regulator, injector, ejector, eccentric strap, bearing, journal and 23 more...
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Classassin
Class^Warfare$$$$!
arriviste, parvenu, gigmania, dyvoury, thugly, déclassé, stalko, sudden loss of we..., guttersnipe, mesocracy, nouveau riche, bourgeois and 71 more...
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Miscellany, pt. b
blowball, blackdamp, bedfast, basifixed, bee willikers, baby bee-lips, bilabiate, ballyhooly, ballyhoo of blazes, balneary, balaniferous, barysphere and 70 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for babbitt.
hernesheir Babbit forming, not babbittry. May 18, 2010
thtownse Just know that forming alloys used in bearing surfaces in machinery bearings can be babbitt forming. May 18, 2010
hernesheir Babbitt, Babbitt metal, or bearing metal - names for a variety of alloys used for the bearing surface in machinery bearings. The metal resists galling. Not named after the Sinclair Lewis character and novel, but rather, after its inventor, one Isaac Babbitt of MA. May 18, 2010
reesetee Originally from the novel by Sinclair Lewis. :-) May 21, 2008
whichbe Eponym: a business or professional man who conforms unthinkingly to prevailing middle-class standards. (from WordCraft) May 20, 2008
rolig See also babbittry. Dec 10, 2007
slumry Thanks, OneBlueSun, for indirectly reminding me of the word babbitry! Jul 11, 2007