Front cover image for The Oxford Dictionary of Allusions

The Oxford Dictionary of Allusions

Allusions form a colourful extension to the English Language, drawing on our knowledge of literature and mythology to give a shorthand for describing people, places, and events. This text explains the meanings of the allusions in use in modern English
Print Book, English, 2001
Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2001
Reference works
xii, 453 pages ; 23 cm
9780198600312, 0198600313
46572233
List of themes. Abundance and plenty
Actors
Adultery
Adventure
Ambition
Anger
Animals, love of
Appearing
Arrogance and pomposity
Artists
Ascent and descent
Avarice
Baldness
Bargain
Beauty : female beauty
Beauty : male beauty
Betrayal
Blindness
Captives
Change
Chaos and disorder
Chastity and virginity
Comedy and humour
Communication
Complexity
Concealment
Conflict
Conformity
Courage
Cowardice
Craftsmen
Criminals
Cunning
Curse
Dancing
Danger
Darkness
Death
Defeat
Departure
Deserted places
Despair
Destiny and luck
Destruction
Detectives
Devil
Dictators and tyrants
Difficulty
Disappearance and absence
Disapproval
Disclosure
Disguise
Distance
Doubt
Dreams
Duality
Enemy
Envy
Escape and survival
Evil
Explorers
Failure
Fatness
Fear
Fertility
Fierce women
Food and drink
Forgiveness
Freedom
Friendship
Generosity
Gesture
Gluttony
Goodness
Grief and sorrow
Guarding
Guilt
Hair
Happiness
Hatred
Height
Heroes
Honesty and truth
Horror
Horses
Humility
Hunters
Hypocrisy
Idealism
Idyllic Places
Illusion
Immobility
Importance
Indifference
Innocence
Insanity
Inspiration
Intelligence
Invisibility
Jealousy
Judgement and decision
Includes index