d thus
applied.

"Prairy, _n._ [Fr. _prairie_.] An extensive tract of land, mostly level,
destitute of trees, and covered with tall, coarse grass. These
_prairies_ are numerous in the United States, west of the Alleghany
Mountains, especially between the Ohio, Mississippi, and the great
lakes.

"Widen, _v. t._ To make wide or wider; to extend in breadth; as, to
_widen_ a field; to _widen_ a breach. [Note. In America, females say, to
_widen_ a stocking.]

"Window, _n._ An opening in the wall of a building for the admission of
light, and of air when necessary. This opening has a frame on the sides,
in which are set movable sashes, containing panes of glass. In the U.
States the sashes are made to rise and fall, for the admission or
exclusion of air. In France _windows_ are shut with frames or sashes
that open and shut vertically, like the leaves of a folding door.

"Chore, _n._ [Eng. _char._] In America this word denotes small work of a
domestic kind, as distinguished from the principal work of the day. It
is generally used in the plural, _chores_, which includes the daily or
occasional business of feeding cattle and other animals, preparing fuel,
sweeping the house, cleaning furniture, etc. (See char.)"

* * * * *

From these examples one may gather some notion of Webster's method of
treating words which were either exclusively American, or had undergone
some change in meaning and use. He regards them all not as departures
from the English standard of the day, but diversities from an older use,
like the English current forms, and it was no disgrace in his eyes for a
word to be an Americanism, nor did it require apology or defense of any
kind. There are indeed many words not to be found in Johnson, of
American origin, or at least of American adoption, which he enters
silently with the belief that they have quite as fair a claim to a place
in his Dictionary as if they had been used by Dryden or Addison. I have
already quoted the passage in his preface relating to the illustrative
quotations; the promise made by Webster is faithfully kept, and the
diligent reader may garner many of the brief thoughts of Mason, Smith,
Barlow, and other American writers whose light has now faded.

By all these means, by a certain contempt of Great Britain, by constant
reference to American usage, by citations from American authors, Webster
made the title to his Dictionary good in every part of it, while