Dewey

[ doo-ee, dyoo-ee ]

noun
  1. George, 1837–1917, U.S. admiral: defeated Spanish fleet in Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War.

  2. John, 1859–1952, U.S. philosopher and educator.

  1. Mel·vil [mel-vil], /ˈmɛl vɪl/, Melville Louis Kossuth Dewey, 1851–1931, U.S. educator, administrator, and innovator in the field of library science.

  2. Thomas E(dmund), 1902–71, U.S. lawyer and political leader.

  3. a male given name, form of David.

Words Nearby Dewey

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use Dewey in a sentence

  • Dewey was ready to fight with ships, but he did not want to fight with forts, so he waited for darkness to come before going in.

  • Then Dewey thought it was time to give his men a rest and let them have some breakfast, so he steamed away.

  • Some shots were fired back, but in a few minutes it was all over and Dewey's squadron was safe in Manila Bay.

  • Before that very few had heard of George Dewey; now he was looked on as one of our greatest naval heroes.

  • "Dewey on the bridge," with shot and shell screaming about him, was as fine a figure as "Farragut in the shrouds" had once been.

British Dictionary definitions for Dewey

Dewey

/ (ˈdjuːɪ) /


noun
  1. John. 1859–1952, US pragmatist philosopher and educator: an exponent of progressivism in education, he formulated an instrumentalist theory of learning through experience. His works include The School and Society (1899), Democracy and Education (1916), and Logic: the Theory of Inquiry (1938)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012