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Wiktionary:Word of the day/2021/July 26

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Word of the day
for July 26
babbitt n
  1. Short for babbitt metal, Babbitt metal (“a soft white alloy of variable composition (for example, nine parts of tin to one of copper, or fifty parts of tin to five of antimony and one of copper) used in bearings to diminish friction”).
    [...]
  2. (US, dated) Alternative letter-case form of Babbitt (“a person who subscribes complacently to materialistic middle-class ideals”)

babbitt v

  1. (transitive) To line (something) with babbitt metal to reduce friction.

The American inventor Isaac Babbitt, after whom the alloy is named, was born on this day in 1799.

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