OED On-line

[Samuel Moyer]

We discussed this awhile ago, but I think I promised to get back...


>From: "Vassegh, Robert F" <robert.F.Vassegh@[omitted]>
>Subject: book of the month club

>Sam,
>
>I went to www.bomc.com, but I didn't see information about OED on-line
>access.  Did you see it mentioned somewhere on the site?  Or was it just in
>the mailer (special promotion)?
>
>Robert

Robert and list,

A cheap way to get the OED on-line is through the BOMC.  Sounds like a
hassle, but it does work and I like it...  here is how it works.

I paid $16.18 for five books to be delivered to me (hard cover).  I bought
B. Kingslover's "Poisonwood Bible" for my wife and Seamus Heany's
Translation of "Beowulf," Vonnegut's "Bagombo Snuff Box," Bartlett's Book of
Anecdotes, and John Keegan's "The First World War" for myself.  I have to
get three more books in the $14 -25 price range over two years.  So that
comes to about $10 or 11 per hardcover book, not too bad.  The selection
isn't great, but you can probably find books worth spending $10 on, at least
I did.  About three weeks after you request your first books, you get them
and your membership number.  You have to click through a couple pages to get
there, but with the membership number (which your computer can remember if
you choose to set it up this way) you have access to the OED on-line.
Because I only restart my PC once or twice a week, I just leave the OED up
all the time.  This makes it very fast and convenient for me, I use it about
ten times everyday now.  Here is an example:

Drub, v.

  1. trans. To beat with a stick or the like, to cudgel, flog; in early use,
spec. to bastinado; to thrash, thump, belabour; also, to beat in a fight.

  1634 SIR T. HERBERT Trav. 47 [He] confest and was drubd right handsomely.
1663 BUTLER Hud. I. ii. 1042 He that is valiant, and dares fight, Tho'
drubb'd, can lose no honour by't. 1663 PEPYS Diary 21 Feb., He..would have
got seamen to have drubbed them. 1691 tr. Emilianne's Frauds Romish Monks
254 Those Priests who thrub'd one another in the Place of S. Mark, for to
catch the Assignations to say Masses. 1698 FRYER Acc. E. Ind. & P. 52. 1706
PHILLIPS (ed. Kersey), Drub, to beat the Soles of the Feet with a Stick, a
Punishment us'd in Turkey: Also simply, to cudgel or bang one soundly. 1733
FIELDING Quixote in Eng. II. iv, He was most confoundedly drubb'd just now.
1835 MARRYAT Jac. Faithf. iv, See if I won't drub you within an inch of your
life. 1887 BESANT The World went iii, He drubbed and belaboured his servants
every day.



  b. Const. to drub (a person) to death, into or out of something; (a thing,
a notion) into or out of a person.

  1634 SIR T. HERBERT Trav. 98 [The Bashaw] made the Petitioner be almost
drubd to death. 1638 Ibid. (ed. 2) 172 He is almost drubd (with many
terrible bastinadoes on the soles of his feet) to death. 1687 T. BROWN
Saints in Uproar Wks. 1730 I. 80 Let us drub these lobsters into better
manners. 1716 Lond. Gaz. No. 5460/3 He had been barbarously drubbed to Death
[in Algiers]. 1728 MORGAN Algiers II. iv. 269. 1751 SMOLLETT Per. Pic.
(1779) II. lxi. 188 Those foolish notions..ought to be drubbed out of you.
1791 MAXWELL in Boswell Johnson (1831) I. 384 We had drubbed those fellows
into a proper reverence for us. 1826 SCOTT Woodst. viii, If the leaven of
thy malignancy is altogether drubbed out of thee.



  c. fig. To belabour with abuse.

  1811 SCOTT Let. 4 Apr., Pray drub your management for the..blunder. 1894
Advance (Chicago) 1 Feb., Drubbing the church and praising outsiders.



  2. transf. To strike or beat with force.

  1849 THACKERAY in 'Punch' Wks. 1886 XXIV. 208 Pots were cooking, drums
were drubbing. 1865 G. MEREDITH Rhoda Fleming xliii, To go and handle
butter..as Mrs. Sumpit drubbed and patted it. 1883 HOWELLS Register i,
Teaching the young idea how to drub the piano.



  3. To beat the ground; to stamp. (intr. and trans.)

  1855 THACKERAY Newcomes II. 227 She drubs her little foot when his name is
mentioned. 1859  Virgin. xxxiii, Drubbing with her little feet. 1860  Round.
Papers, On being found out 129 You..drub on the ground with your lovely
little feet.



  Hence drubbing vbl. n., a beating, a thrashing; also transf., fig., and
attrib.; drubber, one who drubs or beats.

  1650 HOWELL For. Trav. App. (Arb.) 85 They [the Turks] have sundry sorts
of punishments that torture the sense a longer time, as drubbing, guunshing,
flaying alive, impaling. 1687 CONGREVE Old Bach. I. v, He will take a
drubbing with as little Noise as a Pulpit Cushion. 1708 PRIOR Mice 102 These
two were sent (or I'm no drubber). 1752 HUME Ess. & Treat. (1777) I. 266 To
hear..Jupiter threaten Juno with a sound drubbing. 1769 Junius Lett. xxiii.
108 note, Sir Edward Hawke had given the French a drubbing. 1784 Lett. to
Honoria & M. II. 36 Who had just suffered a hearty drubbing-bout. 1814 SCOTT
Wav. xxxiv, Beyond the capacity of the drubber of sheep-skin. 1871 J. C.
JEAFFRESON Ann. Oxford I. xx. 313 The classical drubbings which pupils
underwent. 1884 G. MEREDITH Let. 31 Dec. (1970) II. 755 He got well licked
[at football]. A swim in the Baths afterward braced him, for victory or
another drubbing. 1955 Times 24 May 11/3 The Communists, who are still
licking their wounds after the drubbing they got in 1950. 1959 Spectator 21
Aug. 215/1, I shall be surprised, though, if the Establishment does not take
another drubbing in the City over Harrods.


The link to this is www.bomc.com .  This is a pretty good deal considering
the OED on-line retails for $500 a year.  Anyway, there you have it.... Sam