Johnson often couldn’t resist putting in his own personal, political and occasionally prejudiced views on the correct definition of certain words:
EXCISE: A hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but wretches hired by those to whom excise is paid.
OATS: A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland appears to support the people.
MONSIEUR: A term of reproach for a Frenchman.
TORY: One who adheres to the ancient constitution of the state, and the apostolical hierarchy of the church of England, opposed to a Whig.
WHIG: The name of a faction. (Johnson was a staunch supporter of the Tory party.)