Orin Hargraves

Orin Hargraves (born 1953) is an American lexicographer and writer. His language reference works include Mighty Fine Words and Smashing Expressions: Making Sense of Transatlantic English (Oxford University Press, 2002), Slang Rules!: A Practical Guide for English Learners (Merriam-Webster, 2008), and (with Willard Espy) Words to Rhyme With: A Rhyming Dictionary (2nd edition; Facts on File, 2006). In addition he has contributed definitions and other material to dictionaries and other language reference works issued by Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Longman, Macmillan, HarperCollins, Chambers Harrap, Langenscheidt, Berlitz, Scholastic Corporation, and Merriam-Webster, among others.

Biography Orin Knight Hargraves was born on September 14, 1953, in Denver, Colorado. He spent most of his childhood in Creede, Colorado, and graduated with honors from the University of Chicago in 1977, concentrating in philosophy, language and literature. He served in the U.S. Peace Corps in Morocco where he taught English in a government lycée. Later he worked in the publishing software industry in Chicago and London. He began his career in lexicography in 1991 in London. He joined the Dictionary Society of North America in 1993 and was elected its vice president/president elect in 2009. He lives in Niwot, Colorado.