Special Usage Labels

You will find special usage labels in italics after an entry word whenever they apply. The labels are chiefly British, British, chiefly Scottish, Scottish, Australian, chiefly dialect, chiefly Southern & Midland, and slang. These labels are placed directly after the part-of-speech label when the word has only one sense or when the label applies to all the senses:

Entry Word: afore
Function: preposition
Text: chiefly dialect

Entry Word: bairn
Function: noun
Text: chiefly Scottish

Entry Word: bobby
Function: noun
Text: British

Entry Word: dis
Function: verb
Text: slang

The label comes after the sense number when the word has more than one sense and the label applies only to that sense:

Entry Word: jack
Function: noun
Text: 1 slang
something (as pieces of stamped metal or printed paper) customarily and legally used as a medium of exchange, a measure of value, or a means of payment <I'd buy that watch, but I don't have the jack> -- see MONEY

Special usage labels also appear in the word lists:

Entry Word: before
Function: preposition
Text: 1 earlier than <since I'm a faster runner, I got there before him>
Synonyms: afore [chiefly dialect], ahead of, ere, of, previous to, prior to, to

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