At my computer I only keep a “speller” - it has no definitions -
38,000 Words - Spelling and Division"
(I don’t like spellcheckers, that waste time asking if proper names and addresses are spelled right.)
In the kitchen, where I do the morning crossword, is a trusty
Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary
(Obviously now in the wrong century, but it’s my favorite.)
Here at work I have The American Heritage Dictionary - (Office Edition, based on the Second College Edition), and Barron’s Law Dictionary (Third Edition).
Each are within easy reach. And quite tattered now that I look closely.
I’ve got the Concise Oxford Dictionary for my offline needs. When I’m posting here I usually just jet over to http://dictionary.com since I’m online anyway.
Newton’s Telecom Dictionary, 16th Ed.
Within its covers one can find the following entries:
Bikini Transmitter: A body wire developed for special surveillance project when law enforcement professionals need to secretly record a conversation between a suspect & a female agent. The suspect insisted the meeting take place at a topless beach. An audio transmitter was sewn into a string bikini with the antenna threaded through the string. The largest component, the battery, was carried internally. :eek:
Foo Foo Dust: Magic dust which, when sprinkled on faulty equipment, makes the equipment work prefectly. Also spelled “fu fu dust”.
The entry goes on to acknowledge that Foo Foo dust doesn’t actually exist, but the phrase may be heard used by technicians when faulty equipment suddenly comes back to life. In other words, a fluke situation.
What a fun book. If I come across any more odd ball entries, I’ll post them.
Yup. It’s a big thick Webster’s International one.
At work:
Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, ed 10
Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary, ed 28
Mosby’s Pocket Dictionary of Medicine Nursing, and Allied Health
Mosby’s Dental Dictionary
Mosby’s Medical, Nursing, and Allied Health Dictionary
Our department also has TWO Oxford Unabridged English dictionaries (the kind that come with their own table and the magnifying glass to look at the tiny tiny type.
Go ahead, ask me a word, any word. 
By my desk, I have an old Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 10th ed. Just for quick and easy stuff.
This one’s always within easy reach: http://www.m-w.com/dictionary.htm.
Right now, beside me on the bed, I have Webster’s New Dictionary and Thesaurus published by DX-MAX USA. Do not buy this dictionary. It is on my bed because my 13 year old daughter wants a trade in. In her own words, “There are no words in there!”
At work if I need to look up a word, I just use http://www.dictionary.com, I don’t know if there is an actual dictionary anywhere at my company.
At home I use both my trusty American Heritage and a 2-volume set of the OED (complete with magnifying glass).
At my desk at home I have:
a BBC English Dictionary. To be honest, it stinks. Every definition is written as “A (noun) is a…” or “If you (verb) something, you are…” It was a gift from one of my students. Actually, his office had received a crate of them, and he had 5 or 6 extras.
a Steiner’s French-English/English-French Dictionary. Mostly I use it when writing emails to my aunt and uncle.
a Kenkyusha’s Furigana English-Japanese Dictionary. Without a doubt the most useful Japanese language tool I’ve ever encountered. Small, yet amazingly thorough. Where else could I find the Japanese terms for wuzzy, hydroencephalic and cluster fuck?
–sublight.
Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary. It has over 300,000 entries. Days of entertainment if you’re bored.
Almost forgot…
I also have a Gakken Naming Dictionary. It gives translations from Japanese into 8 other languages. I don’t use it much, but it comes in handy sometimes for my marketing work.
And one English to Esperanto Pocket Dictionary.
–sublight.
Doh. I knew someone would beat me to that.
I don’t have a dictionary or encyclopedia at home, because over time I’ve developed the ability of digging out exactly what I need off of the internet- and I’m usually at my computer whenever I’m at home, anyway.
I want this book! Sounds like fun. What’s the ISBN?
I have (and hate having) a spell-checker on the computer (really fun trying to convince the computer that Turdus migratorius are real words and Auklet should not be Anklet). For some reason, it won’t let me add words I normally type in, and I cannot disable the function.
I do have a mini-dictionary on the desk- Webster’s II New Riverside Dictionary, Second Edition. (Why’n the hell is it called “Riverside”!? Got me. Probably should be “Revised”, but my spell-checker got hold of it.)
Webster’s Dictionary & Thesaurus on the desk.
Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dicationary - One of those big ole numbers that Barnes & Nobles “previously sold” at $100, but is now actually printing and selling them for $25 in the discount section so it looks like a good deal. Still, for $25, it’s a good book (wouldn’t have paid $100 for it).
Webster’s Educational Book of Essential Knowledge - Laughably out of date (it has “laser” in the “New Words for this Edition” section), I still like this book. Besides the dictionary section, it has bits on mythology, common foreign phrases, flags of the U.N. (which, I might add, includes Siam), proverbs, a section on business law, a secretary’s guide and other stuff. I don’t use the dictionary section much any more, but I can’t imagine throwing the book away.
The Offical Scrabble Player’s Dictionary (3rd edition) - I mainly use this one when I want to know how to spell a word, but don’t feel like going to the closet for the dictionaries listed above.
I don’t have one handy at work, so I use Dictionary.com.
At home, it’s a different matter. I have
American Heritage
A 1963 Funk and Wagnalls (to see how words were used back then)
An Etymological Dictionary (dated from the late 1800s – the author talks about that brand new ongoing project, the OED)
Partridge’s Dictionary of Slang
*Descriptionary[/a] (sort of a reverse dictionary – look look up the description and it provides the word),
What’s What – Similar to the previous one, with photos.
Spelling Dictionary – with spell check, I rarely use this any more.
i]Le Mot Juste* (foreign phrase dictionary)
Translation dictionaries: English-French, English-Russian, English-Latin, English-Spanish, English-German
Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
And upstairs there’s the OED and a couple of cheap paperbacks.
In addition, I have a bunch of style guides: (Chicago Manual of Style, Washington Post Manual of Style, GPO Style Manual, Fowler’s Modern English Usage (original and revised), Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style, Quirk and Greenbaum’s Concise Grammar of Contemporary English, Karen Elizabeth Gordon’s The Transitive Vampire: the ultimate handbook of grammar for the innocent, the eager, and the doomed and The Well-Tempered Sentence.
There may be more somewhere.
Here at work I have the Webster’s II New Riverside Dictionary, Office Edition, copyright 1984. I do not particularly recommend it, but it helps with the odd spelling question. Across the room is a nice big unabridged Webster’s.
The dictionary I have at home (i.e., the one I actually bought) is the American Heritage dictionary.
I have four within reach.
The Random House Dictionary
Universal Graphic Dictionary
Webster’s New World Pocket Dictionary (which I dislike)
Collins English Gem Dictionary
I have one dictionary in my room, I’m too lazy to go see what it’s called.
Fourteen inches from my left arm: The Merriam Webster Dictionary, billed as “America’s #1 Paperback Dicionary”