McGraw‐Hill's Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs

This thousand‐plus paged floppy heavyweight is an impressive work. It contains over 24,000 entries and 27,000 senses of idiomatic phrases, proverbial expressions, and clichés, giving definitions and examples. Additionally there is an index giving 60,000 keywords. I cannot say, for sure that this is the fullest dictionary of its kind, but it could well be. The impressively low price, in itself, will appeal, but I must stress the massive scale and coverage of the work, and its excellent presentation.

The compiler gives an excellent account of why such a dictionary is needed: “All languages have phrases that cannot be understood...