Definition of "Babbitt"

A Babbitt met a Bromide on the avenue one day. They held a conversation in their own peculiar way.

1927 Ira Gershwin, "The Babbit and the Bromide," from the stage musical "Funny Face" (1927). Lyrics collected in: Louis Kronenberger (2008) An Anthology of Light Verse, p.234

One speaks of a babbitt habit, a babbitt era. Nothing is more true. America recognized itself in Babbitt, it demurred, but it also admired.

1930, The Literary digest, volume 105, Funk and Wagnalls, page 21

The top and bottom are spiritually and intellectually nearer together in America than in most countries, but there are plenty of Babbitts everywhere.

1931, James Truslow Adams, The Epic Of America, Boston: Little, Brown, And Company, page 411

If there's one thing I can't stand, it's a Babbitt. Say, there's nothing more wonderful than defying middle-class conventions.

1951, The Georgia review, volume 5, University of Georgia, page 150

I myself think that Doc overdid the Yankee Doodle stuff. Being a Babbitt inspired him almost the way Swinburne did me. He was dying to say goodbye to Jewry, or to feudalism.

1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, page 288

[...] a "babbitt" is a person full of self-confident bluster who is nevertheless a narrowminded philistine and a hypocrite.]

[2002 Tamkang review, Volume 33, Tamkang College of Arts and Sciences, p.158

Ira relished telling the story that Fred Astaire took him aside and said he knew what a babbitt was, but what was a bromide?

2003, William Hyland, George Gershwin: a new biography, Greenwood Publishing Group, page 116

In this sense Harding was a Babbitt. Intellectuals and journalists rejected Harding as being as empty as the Sinclair Lewis character.

2009, Phillip G. Payne, Dead last: the public memory of Warren G. Harding's scandalous legacy,, Ohio University Press, page 12

Figure 2 represents a top plan of the "Babbitting" jig, placed in or upon a cast-iron frame, preparatory to the pouring or casting of the "Babbitt" or other soft metal on to or around its journals, to form journal bearings in said cast-iron frame.

1867 October 29, John Underwood, Improved Babbitting and Drilling Jig, US Patent 0070294 (PDF version), page 1

The cross-head is cast of crucible steel and faced with Babbitt. […] The rod is secured to the crank pin by body bound bolts, this bearing being provided with Babbitt shells which are prevented from turning by paper liners extending to the pin.

1895 June, “The Fisher Self-oiling Engine”, in Power, volume XV, number 6, New York, N.Y., Chicago, Ill.: McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, page 10, column 2

The most common bearing materials are Babbitts, both tin-base (as 89% Sn, 8% Pb, 3% Cu) and lead-base (as 75% Pb, 15% Sb, 10% Sn), and copper alloys, primarily copper lead, leaded bronze, tin bronze, and aluminium bronze. […] The Babbitts are unexcelled in conformability and embeddability, but they have relatively low compressive and fatigue strength, particularly above about 77°C (170°F). Babbitts can seldom be used above about 121°C (250°F).

2020, Robert C. Juvinall, Kurt M. Marshek, “Lubrication and Sliding Bearings”, in Jennifer Brady, editor, Fundamentals of Machine Component Design, 7th edition, Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, page 403