Oxfordn.adj.

1843 ‘Medicus’ Hints for Pedestrians iii. 35 Another advantage of this kind of shoe over a Wellington or Blucher boot, is to be found in the fact, that, like an ‘Oxford’, they will be so easy when unbuckled as to form a slipper for the hour of repose.

c1890 in Amer. Mail Order Fashions (1961) 28/2 Women's tan Dongola Kid, square or pointed toe, fox heel Oxfords. French stay.

1932 New Yorker 11 June 45 Waterproof leather oxfords or ghillies..; suede oxfords at Brooks and Rogers Peet... Golf oxfords at Spalding [etc.].

1962 L. Deighton Ipcress File i. 13 He rocked on his hand-lasted Oxfords.

2003 Chicago Tribune (Nexis) 4 May (Mag. section) 10 His suede oxfords, peace-sign choker and furrowed brow stamp him as an 18-year-old.

1849 Jrnl. Royal Agric. Soc. 10 436 The Cotswold is a large breed of sheep, and is the stock from which the class called new Oxford is sprung.

1859 Jrnl. Royal Agric. Soc. 20 345 The Oxford Downs date from the year 1833..when a neat, well-made Cotswold ram was used with Hampshire ewes.

1893 H. H. Bancroft Bk. of Fair xix. 621 For the best sheep awards were made to exhibitors of Cotswold, Leicester, Lincoln, Cheviot, Dorset, Southdown, Shropshire, Oxford, Hampshire, and merinos... The largest number of entries was of merinos, delaine-merinos, Southdowns, and Oxfords.

1970 Observer 26 Apr. (Colour Suppl.) 36/1 All six Down breeds..are shortwools, Oxford Down..being heaviest... Bold-looking sheep with top~knot of wool above dark face.

1989 S. G. Hall & J. Clutton-Brock 200 Years Brit. Farm Livestock ix. 115 These were too fat for the twentieth century market and Oxford, later Suffolk, rams were used instead.

1898 A. M. Binstead Pink 'Un & Pelican iii. 65 In peacocked the little man with the long chain, the ‘wine-steward’ who chucked away Ernest's ‘half-oxford’.]

1902 J. S. Farmer & W. E. Henley Slang V. 119/1 Oxford, a crown piece.

1960 ‘A. Burgess’ Doctor is Sick 103 ‘We'll say a quid deposit, returnable on return of the hat, and a straight charge of an Oxford for the loan. Right?’ ‘Right.’ The young man handed over his Oxford scholar.

1965 Australasian Post (Melbourne) 4 Mar. 46 From ‘dollar’ we have the rhyming slang ‘Oxford scholar’, which eventually became shortened to an ‘Oxford’.

1926 Daily Colonist (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) 21 July 16/4 (advt.) A 4-ply worsted wool in shades of pink... Oxford.

1927 Amer. Speech 2 444/2 A general dictionary such as Webster's, the Standard, or the Concise Oxford.

1941 S. J. Perelman Let. 8 Oct. in Don't tread on Me (1987) 39 Neither Roget nor the Pocket Oxford have words to describe how happy we'd be to join your little seminar this weekend.

1950 W. Stevens Let. 21 Nov. (1967) 699 I look it up either at the office, where we have a Webster, or have someone look it up for me in the State library, where there is an Oxford.

1989 Nature 29 June 672/3 Joe Smith..stood his ground and hit back with the shorter Oxford and a technical definition.

1929 G. Mitchell Myst. Butcher's Shop xi. 120 He fell down, and tore chunks out of his Oxfords on the brambles.

1964 J. Symons End of Solomon Grundy i. ii. 29 The routine of breakfast..Cooper's Oxford, the electric percolator.

1972 ‘I. Drummond’ Frog in Moonflower 10 The Master..spread a piece of toast with Cooper's Oxford.

1886 H. Baumann Londinismen 129/2 Are you Oxford or Cambridge?

1928 D. H. Lawrence Woman who rode Away & Other Stories 152 But, in a voice more expostulatingly Oxford than ever, he said [etc.].

1947 Econ. Jrnl. 57 12 He was top in the English Essay.., second in a rather ‘Oxford’ paper on philosophy.

1983 Eng. Hist. Rev. 98 460 Amery had a very Oxford conversation with H. A. L. Fisher, classifying the brain power of their Coalition colleagues.

1590 ‘Pasquil’ First Pt. Pasquils Apol. sig. B3 You that are Oxford men, enquire whether Walpoole were not a Puritane.

1611 J. Speed Hist. Great Brit. ix. xix. 731/2 Reuerence of the man..moued so the affection of the Oxford Academians.

a1661 T. Fuller Worthies (1662) Surrey 82 He used to examine the Pockets of such Oxford Scholars as repaired unto him, and alwayes recruited them with necessaries.

1709 M. Prior Poems (ed. 2) 206 An Oxford Man, extreamly read in Greek.

1740 D. Bellamy Perjur'd Devotee iv, in Misc. in Prose & Verse II. 56 Zounds he makes Love like an Oxford Scholar.

1796 F. Burney Camilla II. iii. i. 7 As to the colonels, and the ensigns, and that young Oxford student, they won't at all do; officers are commonly worth nothing; and scholars..are the dullest men in the world.

1822 M. Edgeworth Frank: Sequel III. 143 It was said..that all Cambridge scholars call the cipher aught and all Oxford scholars call it nought.

1854 Putnam's Monthly Mag. Aug. 231/2 The Oxford graduate [sc. Ruskin] is himself sensible of the likeness which he bears to the knight of La Mancha.

1885 Dict. National Biogr. at Adolphus, John Leycester He had been appointed steward or legal adviser of his old Oxford college.

1909 Daily Chron. 13 Nov. 4/4 Confidence-tricksters would rather meet a fly-flat than the most learned of Oxford dons.

1957 G. Avery Warden's Niece viii. 153 A young man..clumsily trying to propel his punt from the stern instead of the conventional Oxford position in front.

1993 Esquire Nov. 38/2 He was an Oxford graduate who ended up playing keyboards in her band.

1877 H. James Let. 28 Feb. in R. B. Perry Thought & Char. W. James (1935) I. 375 I lunched the other day with Andrew Lang to meet J. Addington Symonds,—a mild, cultured man, with the Oxford perfume.

1897 G. B. Shaw in Sat. Rev. 17 Apr. 411/1 Stage smart speech, which, like the got-up Oxford mince and drawl of a foolish curate, is the mark of a snob.

1924 E. M. Forster Passage to India xxiv. 221 ‘We object to the presence of so many European ladies and gentlemen upon the platform,’ he said in an Oxford voice.

1934 Spectator 5 Jan. 18/2 Surely it is permissible to suggest..the Oxford Bleat by writing down the directions given me the other day as ‘past a whaite house, between the water-tah and the pah station’.

1960 W. B. Gallie New Univ. vi. 115 They were delighted by the fact that he so often appeared to be joking—for so they described Lindsay's elaborate Oxford irony.

1989 Amer. Forests (Nexis) May 20 ‘Well,’ he said in an understated Oxford manner, ‘if I can't make things happen here, it won't be for lack of trying.’

1855 Tait's Edinb. Mag. June 345/1 Step inside; here it is the voice of Honeyman, B.A., bleating lavender with an Oxford accent.

1902 Sc. Notes & Queries 4 55/1 Even our cultivated men do not escape, as witness the nasty remark made by Mr. Percy White in a recent book about ‘what gentlemen from Aberdeen call the Oxford Accent’.

1904 J. K. Jerome Tommy & Co. v. 174 Somerville's Oxford accent is wasted here.

1934 S.P.E. Tract (Soc. for Pure Eng.) No. XXXIX. 616 It might be said perhaps that the ‘Oxford Accent’ conveys an impression of a precise and rather foppish elegance, and of deliberate artificiality.

1959 J. Braine Vodi vi. 93 Dick assumed an Oxford accent. ‘It's naht old-fashioned, dear brethren, to think of Hell in the language of fire and brimstone.’

1992 Boundary 2 19 123 Wadleigh, with his disheveled appearance and acquired Oxford accent.

2014 K. L. Seegers tr. D. Meyer Cobra iii. 14 Morris contacted me by phone... With a…I suppose what they call an Oxford accent.

1925 Daily Mail 6 Mar. 7/4 (heading) The Oxford ‘Bags’. Although Oxford University has no chair of tailoring an ardent band of reformers there intends to set the world a lead on the subject of—trousers.

1948 H. Acton Mem. Aesthete vi. 119 I wore jackets with broad lapels and broad pleated trousers. The latter got broader and broader. Eventually they were imitated elsewhere and were generally referred to as ‘Oxford bags’.

1992 N. Hornby Fever Pitch 82 I chose a pair of Oxford bags, a black polo-neck jumper, a black raincoat and a pair of black stack-heeled shoes.

2012 F. L. Niven Fabulous Fashions 1920s iii. 22 In 1924 students at Oxford University started wearing loose pants with wide legs... This gave them a very baggy appearance, hence the name ‘Oxford bags’.

1925 Sat. Herald (Dublin) 17 Oct. 6/6 We of 1925 seem to have vested the question of personal appearance with all the gravity of a State problem or a weighty philosophical theme... ‘Is the silhouette doomed?’ ‘Do men like bobbed women?’ ‘Do women like Oxford bagged men?’

1961 Times 18 May 16/6 Eton-cropped maidens sporting decorously with Oxford-bagged partners.

1993 Daily Mail (Nexis) 9 Mar. 37 A boatered, blazered and Oxford-bagged Nanki-Poo..woos a gym-slipped Yum-Yum.

2013 E. Scott I could have been Contender ii. 13 Dad was a handsome, Oxford-bagged man who obviously had a lot of sex-appeal.

1875 R. Hunt & F. W. Rudler Ure's Dict. Arts (ed. 7) III. 465 Oxford chrome, an oxide of iron used in oil and water-colour painting.

1885 S. Fallows Progressive Dict. Eng. Lang. Oxford-chrome, an oxide of iron used in oil and water-color painting.

1955 ISCC-NBS Method designating Colors (U.S. National Bureau of Standards Circular 553) 157 (table) Ochre, Oxford Chrome, Oxford Ochre, Oxford Yellow.

1968 J. D. Clark Beastly Folklore 102 Oxford chrome: yellow ochre.

1812 Philos. Mag. 40 53 The third or great oelite, comprising the green sand, Bedford sand, 1st oelite or Portland stone, clunch, or Oxford clay.

1818 W. Phillips Sel. Facts Geol. Eng. & Wales 66 In these..are included the three strata..namely, the Forest marble, the Cornbrash limestone, and the clunch clay (Oxford Clay).

1898 Jrnl. Anthropol. Inst. 27 225 If the diviner's recommendations were acted on, the council would be boring into a stratum of Oxford clay.

1989 J. Campbell-Kease Compan. Local Hist. Res. (BNC) 358 A broad band of Corallian Limestone and Sand crosses the central part..and this is bounded on each side by Oxford Clay.

2012 J. Steane & J. Ayres Trad. Buildings Oxf. Region v. 51/1 They [sc. moats] are found in large numbers on the Oxford Clay, in the upper Thames valley and in the north-east of the county.

1905 Clothier & Furnisher (N.Y.) Aug. 48/1 It [sc. the garment] is made from a medium weight cheviot or Oxford cloth.

1969 Sears, Roebuck Catal. Spring–Summer 24 Rajah shirt with soil release. Oxford cloth of polyester and cotton.

1987 J. Barth Tidewater Tales (1988) 30 She's easy in the preppie drag she wears to work: tweed skirts, cable-knit crewnecks over oxford-cloth buttondowns.

2007 K. J. Nielson Interior Textiles iv. 74/2 Oxford cloth and duck are unbalanced basketweaves that carry two fine warp threads as one interlaced with one slightly heavier weft thread.

1978 P. Sutcliffe Oxf. Univ. Press iv. i. 114 It was [F. H.] Collins who invented the ‘Oxford comma’, for which he obtained support from Herbert Spencer.

1990 Orlando (Florida) Sentinel (Nexis) 9 Nov. a2 Do you know what an ‘Oxford comma’ is? One that precedes a conjunction. As the one between the ‘b’ and the ‘and’ in: ‘a, b, and c’. Hardly anybody uses the Oxford comma anymore. It's rarely needed.

2020 P. Pullman in Oxf. Times 30 Jan. 4/4 The ‘Brexit’ 50p coin is missing an Oxford comma, and should be boycotted by all literate people.

1888 C. T. Jacobi Printer's Vocab. 93 Oxford corners, borders with mortised corners.

1960 G. A. Glaister Gloss. Bk. 289/1 Oxford corners, right-angles formed outside a printed frame (e.g. on a title-page) where the lines meet and project.

a1894 O. W. Holmes Compl. Poet. Wks. (1912) 313 Our old-world scholar may have ways to teach Of Oxford English, Britain's purest speech.

1926 D. H. Lawrence Plumed Serpent ii. 31 An odd, detached, yet cocky little man, a true little Indian, speaking Oxford English in a rapid, low, musical voice.

1952 M. Steen Phoenix Rising iv. 72 Americans come over and proceed to acquire what they think is Oxford English.

2003 Take One (Nexis) May We hear the Honourable Akele Banda, Malawi's minister of health, in his impeccable Oxford English, describe to us [etc.].

1870 Littell's Living Age 21 May 505/1 A novelty is announced in black-edged or mourning note-paper. The new design consists of what is known as an Oxford frame, as a substitute for the ordinary black border.

1873 E. Spon Workshop Receipts 1st Ser. 8/2 Nothing is prettier than an Oxford frame of light oak.

1997 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 17 July 61/3 The frame is of a type that was common in Victorian England. Petrie calls it an Oxford frame.

1822 Sat. Evening Post (Philadelphia) 20 Apr. 2/5 A costume of Oxford Grey has been established for the Students of Harvard University.

1836 W. F. Tolmie Jrnl. 28 Oct. (1963) 322 1 pr Extra S. fine dark Oxford grey trousers.

1903–4 T. Eaton Catal. Fall–Winter 17 Women's Trainless Suit, made of Oxford grey Donegal tweed.

1973 R. Hayes Hungarian Game xxxix. 235 Urkowitz' face was turning a shade of fine Oxford gray.

1996 Transition 72 38/1 The Sinatra of the snap-brim hat, the oxford-gray suit, and the wing-tip shoes that seemed to be shined even on the soles.

1956 H. Williamson Methods Bk. Design xix. 308 Another method is to fix on the spine of the section a tube of paper, or Oxford hollow, and to fix the cover to this.

1985 Business First–Columbus (Ohio) (Nexis) 23 Sept. ii. 8 One side of the tube is glued to the back of the book, the other side is glued to the binding. That's called an ‘Oxford hollow’.

1784 Glasse's Art of Cookery (new ed.) ii. 51 Oxford John. Keep a leg of mutton till it is stale, cut it into thin collops, [etc.].

1892 Encycl. Pract. Cookery II. 68/2 Oxford John.

1984 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 10 June x. 12/1 The night of ‘English country fayre’ began with Herefordshire salmon.., continued with Oxford John (roast leg of lamb, lemon herb sauce and rosemary jelly).

2005 P. Stockley Factory of Cunning i. 50 Victoire dragged her attention from a plate of Oxford John.., a ragout of lamb with parsley, in which hearty croutons jostled.

1905 Times 2 Mar. 14/7 The original home where the distinctive feature of Mr. Cooper's business, the ‘Oxford’ marmalade, was started some 40 years ago.

1962 Sunday Express 25 Feb. 6/3 Wyatt's thick-cut Oxford marmalade voice.

1999 Ottawa Citizen (Nexis) 16 Aug. a6 Dreaming of nipping down to the pub for a quick drink, enjoying his Oxford marmalade on toast, or making homemade Bath Oliver biscuits.

2009 M. Tungate Luxury World xiii. 145 It was a jar of Frank Cooper's Original Oxford Marmalade on a breakfast table that inspired this chapter.

1825 Monthly Mag.: Suppl. No. 31 Jan. 606/2 Commissioners.—Plain blue coat, double-breasted, gilt buttons, with the royal arms; yellow waistcoat, with buttons like those on the coat; Oxford mixture Wellington pantaloons.

1837 C. Dickens Pickwick Papers xl. 441 His legs..graced a pair of Oxford-mixture trousers, made to show the full symmetry of the limbs.

1847 Sporting Rev. Sept. 161 Let our honest man attire him in an Oxford mixture, with tolerably full skirts.

1868 ‘H. Lee’ Basil Godfrey's Caprice iii. 18 He wore a long Oxford mixture coat.

1909 Chambers's Jrnl. Jan. 43/2 The regulations enjoin..trousers of Oxford mixture.

1827 N. Whittock Decorative Painters' & Glaziers' Guide i. i. 12 Yellow Ochre is a mineral earth found in many places, but in England chiefly at Shotover Hill, near Oxford; and is therefore known by the name of Oxford Ochre.

1854 T. H. Fielding Painting in Oil & Water Colour (ed. 5) 179 Yellow Ochre is..sometimes called Oxford Ochre, being abundant in that neighbourhood.

1875 R. Hunt & F. W. Rudler Ure's Dict. Arts (ed. 7) III. 430 A section of the ochre-pits at Shotover Hill, near Oxford, where the Oxford ochre is obtained.

1912 Proc. Royal Soc. B. 85 82 A rather rich yellow ochre, made with Mars yellow, Oxford ochre, and a little burnt sienna.

1985 J. Ayres Artist's Craft iv. 127 (caption) Until the late nineteenth century Oxford ochre was a well-known pigment. It was ground in two mills..adjacent to the ochre quarry.

2013 J. Steane & J. Ayres Trad. Buildings Oxf. Region x. 344 This mill was used to grind grain but also ‘Oxford ochre’, a pigment that was won from the adjacent quarry.

1818 W. Buckland in W. Phillips Sel. Facts Geol. Eng. & Wales (table) Upper or Oxford Oolite. Perishable Freestone composed of Oolitic concretions and Shelly fragments united by a calcareous Cement.

1822 W. Buckland in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 112 174 The rock perforated by the cave is referable to that portion of the oolite formation which, in the south of England, is known by the name of the Oxford oolite and coral rag: its organic remains are identical with those of the Heddington quarries near Oxford.

1882 A. Geikie Text-bk. Geol. iii. ii. §2 793 The Middle or Oxford Oolites are composed of two distinct groups: (1) the Oxfordian, and (2) the Corallian.

1928 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) B. 216 82 In 1926..I referred to these rocks as the ‘Oxford Oolites,’ a name which it has since seemed desirable to abandon.

1933 W. J. Arkell Jurassic Syst. Great Brit. i. 7 The scene had now shifted from Bath to Oxford, for we have Upper or Oxford Oolite, Oxford, Forest or Fen Clay, and Stonesfield Slate.

1957 Clitheroe Advertiser & Times 24 May 8/1 (advt.) Coloured sheet sets with Oxford pillowcases... Blue, peach, pink and green.

1995 G. Nicol Cross-stitch 34 Oxford pillowcases have a classic style, providing a perfect foil for monograms.

2007 R. Simhon Housewife's Handbk. ii. 64 It is a good idea to put Oxford pillowcases on the bottom pillows and housewife cases on the top ones, so that the frilled edge peeps out.

1856 N. Hawthorne Jrnl. 31 Aug. in Eng. Notebks. (1997) II. v. 115 We looked also at the outside of the wall [of New College]; and Mr. Parker..showed us a weed growing upon the wall,..hanging plentifully downward from a shallow root. It is called the Oxford plant, being found only here, and not easily, if at all, introduced anywhere else.

1827 R. Cook Oxf. Night Caps 11 The Oxford Punch, when made with half the quantity of spirituous liquors, and placed in an ice tub for a short time, is a pleasant summer beverage.

1845 E. Acton Mod. Cookery xxvi. 637 Oxford Punch... Lemons..oranges..calf's foot jelly..white wine..French brandy..Jamaica rum [etc.].

1877 E. S. Dallas Kettner's Bk. of Table 322 Oxford punch.—The great characteristic of this punch is its having a quantity of calf's foot jelly dissolved in it.

1913 Country Life 29 Nov. 908/1 In answer to the request for recipes I send the following. The first is called ‘Oxford Punch’.

2013 K. O'Connor Pineapple v. 112 In Britain choice old pineapple rum from the West Indies continued to be sold by provisioners to the nobility and gentry, and used in drinks like Oxford Punch.

1884 W. Miller Dict. Eng. Names Plants 249/2 Senecio..squalidus, Oxford Rag-wort.

1886 G. C. Druce Flora Oxfordshire 158 Oxford Ragwort... Very plentiful in and around Oxford, where it was first noticed by Sir Joseph Banks. .Dillenius sent seeds to Linnæus but whether he gathered them from the Oxford Garden or the wall of the town no memorandum exists.

1926 Nat. Hist. Oxf. District 72 A few brave adventitious plants may be seen on the walls, including the ubiquitous Oxford Ragwort.

1990 InterCity Mag. Sept. 28/3 We're now approaching King's Cross, urban jungle all round. Watch for a bright yellow groundsel-like plant called the Oxford Ragwort.

c1700 W. Bishop in Ballard MSS XXXI. 122 Your best Oxford Sossages.

1764 (title) The Oxford sausage.

1778 G. Huddesford Warely ii. 22 My spacious Red Lane will afford a smooth passage, To a sav'ry Bologna, or spic'd Oxford Sausage.

1850 G. P. R. James Henry Smeaton xxi. 84/2 We shall be quite safe here; and I have got half a loaf and a long Oxford sausage with me.

1926 Daily Colonist (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) 5 Jan. 6/2 (advt.) Fresh Made Oxford Sausage, 3 lbs. for 32 c.

2001 Philippine Daily Inquirer (Nexis) 23 Oct. 9 Our food reviewer raved over a first-class omelet, Oxford sausages and cafe au lait.

1937 E. Partridge Dict. Slang 596/1 Oxford Scholar, five shillings (piece or sum): New Zealanders' rhyming s. on dollar: C. 20. Also from ca. 1870, in the S.W. of England.

1960 ‘A. Burgess’ Doctor is Sick 103 ‘We'll say a quid deposit, returnable on return of the hat, and a straight charge of an Oxford for the loan. Right?’ ‘Right.’ The young man handed over his Oxford scholar.

1991 Sunday Mail Mag. (Brisbane) 13 Jan. 43/5 James..said ‘I've got the Oxford scholars (dollars) if you've got the place.’

1835 in H. P. Liddon et al. Life E. B. Pusey (1894) I. xv. 350 Mr. Maurice..made up his mind that it represented the parting-point between him and the Oxford School.

1949 Eng. Hist. Rev. 64 333 Bunsen could expect..that the Jerusalem plan for an Anglo-Prussian bishopric would have its most formidable opponents in divines of the Oxford school.

1881 Times 30 Sept. 12/2 Dressed in light gray jacket, dark checked trousers and vest, side-spring boots, blue check Oxford shirt, white stockings, and white straw hat.

1959 Listener 4 June 982/1 The cloth cap and the collarless Oxford shirt.

2000 GQ Nov. 230 In his signature oxford shirts and dark sport coats, he still could be that shy everyboy down the block—the one who reads poetry and walks with his head hung low.

1891 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Mar. 319/1 She commended a cotton dress my sister had on..—a blue Oxford shirting, trimmed with a darker shade.

1917 Jrnl. Royal Anthropol. Inst. 47 355 The fabric is of non-spun fibre, with a good selvedge and an Oxford shirting pattern obtained by means of white warp and red and blue weft.

1981 Times 8 Oct. 13/5 Spots and stripes were the fashion prints of the season—clean and pure for Laura Biagotti's Oxford shirting dresses.

1721 N. Amhurst Terræ-filius No. 46 (1754) 247 I have met them with bob-wigs and new shoes, Oxford-cut.]

1843 ‘Medicus’ Hints for Pedestrians iii. 34 The ‘Oxford’ shoe, as it is called, lacing up the middle and over the instep, is the best of shoes.

1847 New Monthly Mag. 80 ii. 457 High-lows (now called Oxford shoes).

1870 M. Bridgman Robert Lynne I. xiii. 213 Patent-leather Oxford shoes.

1925 J. Dos Passos Manhattan Transfer iii. iii. 309 He wore..olive green woolen socks with black clockmarks and dark red Oxford shoes, their laces neatly tied with doubleknots that never came undone.

1984 W. Boyd Stars & Bars i. i. 9 Everything about him proclaims his Englishness. His haircut.., and his shiny, well-creased, toe-capped Oxford shoes.

1836 F. D. Maurice Let. 5 Sept. in F. Maurice F. D. Maurice (1884) I. xiii. 205 I cannot say from my own experience whether you are right in your opinion that the Oxford Tract doctrines are spreading.

1870 S. A. Allibone Crit. Dict. Eng. Lit. 1709/1 Dr. Pusey had given great offence to some, and equal satisfaction to others, by his connection with the Oxford Tracts movement.

1900 Dict. National Biogr. at Wilson, Daniel He was a zealous opponent of the principles maintained in the Oxford tracts, against the tendencies of which he both spoke and preached with vehemence.

1992 R. Chapman in L. J. Workman Medievalism in Eng. 173 Unlike some of his associates in the Cambridge Camden Society, he [sc. J. M. Neale] approved of the Oxford Tracts.

1925 Punch 4 Mar. 244 (caption) Perils of the Dance. The terror of the Oxford trousers.

1937 J. Laver Taste & Fashion xvii. 241 The advent of Oxford trousers in the middle twenties.

1982 Times 5 Oct. 9/1 (caption) Margaret Howell's dark brown chalk striped suit..£198, (double breasted jacket and Oxford trousers with turn-ups).

1826–31 (title) Oxford Union Society [proceedings].

1857 (title) A peep at the pictures and a catalogue of the principal objects of attraction in the room of the Oxford union society.

1893 Dict. National Biogr. XII. 560/1 He rowed in the Merton boat, and was president of the Oxford Union.

1996 Q Jan. 192/4 He..played jazz piano in the cellars of the Oxford Union.

1942 H. W. Florey & M. Jennings in Brit. Jrnl. Exper. Pathol. 13 122 For those using the dilution method it may be stated that the ‘Oxford unit’ is that amount of penicillin which when dissolved in 50 ml. of meat extract broth just inhibits completely the growth of the test strain of Staphylococcus aureus.

1948 H. N. G. Wright & M. L. Montag Textbk. Pharmacol. & Therapeutics (ed. 4) xxxiii. 548 For the treatment of mild to moderately severe infections daily dosages of 80,000 to 120,000 Oxford units are sufficient.

1952 W. T. Salter Textbk. Pharmacol. xlix. 1084/1 The new international unit and the old Oxford unit are very close.

2004 Daily Tel. 7 Jan. 25/2 He devised a new assay method that allowed the activity of a sample of penicillin to be measured precisely, in what became known as ‘Oxford units’.

1834 W. Baxter Brit. Phænogamous Bot. I. 23 This very pretty plant is a native of Italy, and is said to have been originally introduced into England by means of its seeds having been brought..to Oxford, where it has long established itself on the walls of the Colleges, gardens, &c. in such abundance as to have obtained the name of ‘Oxford-weed’.

1976 C. Oman Oxf. Childhood vii. 133 Mrs Pember was a qualified botanist and I was soon flattered by being sent up to the top of a crumbling wall..to get her specimens of Oxford Weed.