The average purchaser of a dictionary uses it most often, probably, to find out what a word means.
一般购买词典的人使用词典时恐怕多半是为了查找一个词所表达的是什么意思。
As a reader, he wants to know what an author intended to convey. As a speaker or writer, he wants to know what a word will convey to his auditor s.
作为读者，他想了解作者要表达的是什么意思;作为讲话者或作者，他想知道一个词会将什么样的意思传达给他的听者或读者。
And this, too, is complex, subtle, and for ever changing.
这方面的情况也是复杂的、微妙的，而且总是在变。
An illustration is furnished by an editorial in the Washington Post (January 17, 1962).
《华盛顿邮报》的一篇社论(1962年元月17日)为我们提供了一个说明问题的例证。
After a ringing appeal to those who love truth and accuracy and the usual bombinations about abdication of authority and barbarism , the editorial charges the Third International with pretentious and obscure verbosity and specifically instances its definition of so simple an object as a door.”
这篇社论在对那些热爱真实性与准确性的人们发出强烈的呼吁并照例发出一通丧失权威性和用词不规范的抱怨声之后，接着便指责第三版矫揉造作、晦涩难懂、繁冗累赘，还特地援引该词典给门这么一个简单的物体所下的定义来作为说明的例子。
The definition reads:
该词的定义如下：
a movable piece of firm material or a structure supported usu. along one side and swinging on pivots or hinges , sliding along a groove , roiling up and down, revolving as one of four leaves, or folding like an accordion by means of which an opening may be closed or kept open for passage into or out of a building, room, or other covered enclosure or a car, airplane, elevator, or other vehicle.
用坚实材料制成的可移动的板或一种构造物，通常 有一侧是固定着的，可以绕着轴和铰链转动，或沿一道凹槽滑动，或上下卷动，或作为一四叶物体旋转，或像手风琴一样可以折叠。
Then follows a series of special meanings, each particularity defined and, where necessary, illustrated by a quotation Since, aside from roaring and admonishing the gentle men from Springfield that accuracy and brevity are virtues,” the Post's editorial tails to explain what is wrong with the definition,
通过这些方法，开口处得以关闭或打开，从而进出一建筑物、房间、或其他有顶的围墙、或汽车、飞机、电梯或其他运载工具。
we can only infer from so simple a thing that the writer takes the plain, downright, man-in-the street attitude that a door is a door and any damn fool knows that.
接下来是一系列特殊的含义，每种含义都作了具体的界定，必要的地方还引用了有来源的例证加以说明。