RUN-ON ENTRIES

A main entry may be followed by one or more derivatives or by a homograph with a different functional label. These are run-on entries. Each is introduced by a lightface dash and each has a functional label. They are not defined, however, since their meanings are readily derivable from the meaning of the root word:

Main Entry: slay
Function: verb
--slay.er noun

Main Entry: spir.it.ed
Function: adjective
--spir.it.ed.ly adverb
--spir.it.ed.ness noun

Main Entry: stac.ca.to
Function: adjective
--staccato adverb
--staccato noun

A main entry may be followed by one or more phrases containing the entry word or an inflected form of it. These are also run-on entries. Each is introduced by a lightface dash but there is no functional label. They are, however, defined since their meanings are more than the sum of the meanings of their elements:

Main Entry: hole
Function: noun
--in the hole : . . .

Main Entry: ¹live
Function: verb
--live it up : . . .

Defined phrases of this sort are run on at the entry constituting the first major element in the phrase. The first major element is ordinarily a verb or a noun, but when these are absent another part of speech may serve instead:

Main Entry: ¹but
Function: conjunction
--but what : . . .

When there are variants, however, the run-on appears at the entry constituting the first major invariable element in the phrase:

Main Entry: ¹clock
Function: noun
--kill the clock or run out the clock : . . .

Main Entry: ¹hand
Function: noun
--on all hands or on every hand : . . .

A run-on entry is an independent entry with respect to function and status. Labels at the main entry do not apply unless they are repeated.

Attention is called to the definition of vocabulary entry. The term dictionary entry includes all vocabulary entries as well as all abbreviations and symbols for chemical elements, foreign words and phrases, biographical names, and geographical names.

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