Accessing the Oxford English Dictionary normally costs $10/£10 a month (or $100/£100 a year), but many libraries offer free access—handy if you need to, say, refute an annoyingly ahistorical use of “weed”.

To find access instructions for your library, plug “access OED public library <your city>” into your search engine of choice. For example, “access OED public library San Francisco” leads you to this SFPL FAQ. You may need to dig a bit. Or contact your librarian.

I’m suggesting a web search because, although the OED has a “Sign in with library card” option, the list of available libraries is woefully outdated (it doesn’t show SFPL, for example) and accessing the option isn’t obvious. If you’d like to try your luck, here’s how:

1. Go to OED.com.
2. Select the account sign-in icon at the top (a blue head in a white circle).
3. Select “Sign in with library card.”
4. Search for your library. (Good luck.)

(Worth noting: several libraries offer non-resident memberships, usually for a nominal annual fee, if your local library doesn’t offer OED access. Also useful for borrowing books via Libby or Hoopla.)