Much loved for its wit and wisdom since 1870, Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable takes you on a captivating adventure through its trademark blend of language, culture, myth and legend. As Susie Dent explains in the foreword, Brewer’s “is not a straightforward dictionary, nor is it an encyclopaedia. It is, in fact, unlike any other reference book that exists, anywhere.” This nineteenth edition encapsulates all the charm and wit that characterise its predecessors and maintains the standards of scholarship and eclecticism that have long been its hallmark.

Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (Philadelphia: Henry Altemus Company, 1898) "New Edition, Revised, Corrected and Enlarged": searchable web-format at Bartleby.com [ dead link] Find sources: "Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( August 2013) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, sometimes referred to simply as Brewer's, is a reference work containing definitions and explanations of many famous phrases, allusions, and figures, whether historical or mythical. This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. The most recent version is the 20th edition, published in November 2018 by Chambers Harrap Publishers. As Susie Dent explains in the foreword, Brewer's "is unlike any other reference book that exists, anywhere."

For almost 150 years it has been a celebrated treasure-trove of curious words, forgotten folklore and colourful olde worlde insults...It's opinionated, incomplete, haphazard and strangely addictive. ( The Telegraph) Reprints: 1896, 1897, 1898, 1900, 1901, 1902, 1904, 1905, 1906, 1907, 1909, and others with no date) While the proper title of the 1894 edition was the Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, future versions of the dictionary began incorporating Brewer's name in the title, in the same way that Bartlett's Familiar Quotations eventually included its original author's name in the title. This twentieth edition of Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable encapsulates all the charm and wit that characterise its predecessors and maintains the standards of scholarship and eclecticism that have long been its hallmark.

Of all the dictionaries in the world [Brewer's] is the most like a treasure-hunt, where one phrase leads to another, and that to a third, and before you know what's happened, it's time for lunch (Philip Pullman) Much loved for its wit and wisdom since 1870, Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable takes you on a captivating adventure through its trademark blend of language, culture, myth and legend. Nowhere else could the histories of the guillotine and Guinness stout sit so comfortably alongside the KGB and the Keystone Kops. Brewer’s is a catalogue of curiosities and absurdities that, over almost 150 years in print, has acquired near-mythical status. An idiosyncratic adventure, pulling you in and saying: "this is, in fact, not what you were looking for; but it's much more interesting" (Terry Pratchett)