The Devil's Dictionary is a satirical reference book written by Ambrose Bierce. The book offers reinterpretations of terms in the English language, lampooning cant and political doublespeak. It was originally published in 1906 as The Cynic's Word Book before being retitled in 1911.

 
Examples
Conservative
(noun) A statesman who is enamoured of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.[1]
Cynic
(noun) A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be. Hence the custom among the Scythians of plucking out a cynic's eyes to improve his vision.[2]
Lawyer
(noun) One skilled in circumvention of the law.[3]
Youth
(noun) The Period of Possibility, when Archimedes finds a fulcrum, Cassandra has a following and seven cities compete for the honor of endowing a living Homer.
Youth is the true Saturnian Reign, the Golden Age on earth again, when figs are grown on thistles, and pigs betailed with whistles and, wearing silken bristles, live ever in clover, and cows fly over, delivering milk at every door, and Justice is never heard to snore, and every assassin is made a ghost and, howling, is cast into Baltimost! —Polydore Smith

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