OMISSION OF A SENSE

Occasionally the dictionary user, having turned to an entry, may not find a particular sense that was expected or hoped for. This usually means no more than that the editors judged the sense insufficiently common or otherwise important to include in a dictionary of this scope. Such a sense will frequently be found at the appropriate entry in a dictionary (as Webster's Third New International Dictionary) that has room for less common words and meanings. One special case is worth noting, however.

At times it would be possible to include the definition of a meaning at more than one entry (as at a simple verb and a verb-adverb collocation or at a verb and an adjective derived from a participle of that verb). To save space for other information such double coverage is avoided, and the meaning is generally defined only at the base form. For the derivative term the meaning is then considered to be essentially self-explanatory and is not defined.

For example, cast off has a sense "to get rid of" in such typical contexts as "cast off all restraint," and so has the simple verb cast in contexts like "cast all restraint to the winds." This meaning is defined as sense 1e(2) of cast and is omitted from the entry cast off, where the dictionary user will find a number of senses that cannot be considered self-explanatory in relation to the entries for cast and off. Likewise, the entry for the adjective picked gives only one sense -- "choice, prime" -- which is not the meaning of picked in such a context as "the picked fruit lay stacked in boxes awaiting shipment." A definition suitable for this use is not given at picked because one is given at the first homograph pick, the verb from which the adjective picked is derived, as sense 3a -- "to gather by plucking."

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