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• babbitt
  babbitt

  noun

  Babbitt metal.
• Babbitt
  Babbitt

  noun

  Irving, 1865–1933, U.S. educator and critic.

babbitt

¹ American  

[bab-it] / ˈbæb ɪt /

noun

1. Babbitt metal.

2. a bearing or lining of Babbitt metal.

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adjective

1. pertaining to or made of Babbitt metal.

verb (used with object)

1. to line, face, or furnish with Babbitt metal.

Babbitt ² American  

[bab-it] / ˈbæb ɪt /

noun

1. Irving, 1865–1933, U.S. educator and critic.

2. Milton Byron, 1916–2011, U.S. composer.

3. (italics) a novel (1922) by Sinclair Lewis.

4. (often lowercase) a self-satisfied person who conforms readily to conventional, middle-class ideas and ideals, especially of business and material success; Philistine: from the main character in the novel by Sinclair Lewis.

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Babbitt ¹ British  

/ ˈbæbɪt /

noun

1. derogatory a narrow-minded and complacent member of the middle class

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babbitt ² British  

/ ˈbæbɪt /

verb

1. (tr) to line (a bearing) or face (a surface) with Babbitt metal or a similar soft alloy

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Babbitt Cultural  

1. (1922) A novel by Sinclair Lewis. The title character, an American real estate agent in a small city, is portrayed as a crass, loud, overoptimistic boor who thinks only about money and speaks in clichés, such as “You've gotta have pep, by golly!”

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By extension, a “Babbitt” is a narrow-minded, materialistic businessman.

Other Word Forms

• Babbittry
  noun

Etymology

Origin of babbitt

First recorded in 1900–05; short for Babbitt metal

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

babbitt Babbitt

Balzac was a cross between a babbitt and a stroke of lightning.

From Time Magazine Archive

Last week this sleekest of ocean greyhounds nosed into Haifa, the port of call for Jerusalem, and one who is not a babbitt hastened ashore.

From Time Magazine Archive

Advantages, claimed in a Du Pont patent: no lubrication required; less friction, vibration, heat; longer wear and ability to carry heavier loads than bearings made of bronze, brass, babbitt metal.

From Time Magazine Archive

Varying proportions of copper and tin give gun metal, bell metal, babbitt metal and many another alloy, the greater the percentage of tin the harder being the resulting composition.

From Time Magazine Archive

If copper be used instead of babbitt a hole may be drilled through it, as denoted by the dotted lines.

From Modern Machine-Shop Practice, Volumes I and II by Rose, Joshua

For example, it had nothing to do with the chance music of John Cage or the meticulously plotted complications of Milton Babbitt and Elliott Carter, the American heroes of ’70s modernism.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 22, 2026

Ads, in fact, quickly turned Babbitt into a widely recognized brand.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 15, 2026

Sharlet recalled watching videos of Trump supporters talking about Babbitt in the wake of her death: “They’re aging her backward, they’re lowering her weight, they’re lowering her height, they’re turning her into a little girl.”

From Salon ● Jan. 6, 2026

Randy Babbitt - a former head of the FAA - told the NewsNation network: "They have very, very high standards to be an air traffic controller. Diversity has nothing to do with it."

From BBC ● Jan. 31, 2025

And this had happened because I had read a novel about a mythical man called George F. Babbitt.

From "Black Boy" by Richard Wright