Thanks for the info.

But I'm left wondering, did the OED polish of the patina of the original definition (I mean from "damnation with faint praise" to the rather dull "ridicule") or did the 3 dollar, pulp-paper, pages-falling-out-on-the-first-day Wordsworth Dictionary of Difficult Words just bungle their definition?

It that the OED online you are using?

Is it free?