Diccionario ingles.comDiccionario ingles.com
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home 		English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Shibboleth   /ʃˈɪbəlˌɛθ/   Listen
noun
Shibboleth  n.  
1.
A word which was made the criterion by which to distinguish the Ephraimites from the Gileadites. The Ephraimites, not being able to pronounce sh, called the word sibboleth. See "Without reprieve, adjudged to death, For want of well pronouncing shibboleth." Also used in an extended sense. "The th, with its twofold value, is... the shibboleth of foreigners."
2.
Hence, the criterion, test, or watchword of a party; a party cry or pet phrase.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words


Share |




"Shibboleth" Quotes from Famous Books



... relief it was when the king took all this responsibility from the shoulders and said to the artists and artisans, "Art for Art's sake," or whatever was the equivalent shibboleth of that day. Here was comfort assured for the worker, with a housing in the Gobelins, or in that big asylum, the Louvre, where an apartment was the reward of virtue. And now was a market assured for a man's ...
— The Tapestry Book • Helen Churchill Candee
... Jesus Christ be called, with a view to the speedy Christianization of the world, and either three-fourths would keep away or the whole time of the meeting be wasted in an acrimonious quarrel as to the meaning of Christianity or the wording of the Shibboleth whereby those who were should be distinguished from those who were not entitled to bear ...
— Glances at Europe - In a Series of Letters from Great Britain, France, Italy, - Switzerland, &c. During the Summer of 1851. • Horace Greeley
... death-days even in condition, except by artificial levelling; and in republics and limited monarchies, where all are politically equal, the greatest social inequalities ever prevail. Still falser is the shibboleth-crow of the French cock, "Libert, Egalit, Fraternit," which has borrowed its plumage from the American Bird o' Freedom. And Douglas Jerrold neatly expressed the truth when he said,—"We all row in the same boat but ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 5 • Richard F. Burton
... paean. Was this a necessary implication from the Dred Scott decision? Was it the intention of the Court to leave the principle of popular sovereignty standing upright? Was not the decision rather fatal to the great doctrine—the shibboleth of ...
— Stephen A. Douglas - A Study in American Politics • Allen Johnson
... her senses quivering, that saying, "Until the heaven's fallen," was frightening beyond the rest. On the lips of her husband, those lips which had never spoken in metaphors, never swerved from the direct and commonplace, nor deserted the shibboleth of his order, such words had an evil ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy


More quotes...


Copyright © 2025 Diccionario ingles.com