This book analyses Noah Webster's and Samuel Johnson's use of verbal examples in their dictionaries as a means of giving guidance on word usage. This analysis reveals that Johnson's selection of sources of citations and the frequency of his quoting citations tended to vary strongly according to the types of entry word. In contrast, almost all of Webster's citations were taken from Johnson's »Dictionary«. However, Webster significantly made full use of such citations to express his view on word usage, which differs essentially from Johnson's.