Dictionary

quick brown fox en · NOUN

Etymology

Ellipsis of the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

Meanings

1. An instance of the phrase “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”.
   • We visited the showroom [of the typewriter company Olivetti], which is just north of Forty-seventh Street, a day or so before it opened, while the last dabs of putty and paint were being hurled into place, and were so carried away by its air of Mediterranean high spirits that we could scarcely refrain from snatching a portable off a pedestal and racking up a “quick brown fox” or two. 1954 June 5, “Natural”, in The New Yorker, via Internet Archive, →ISSN, The Talk of the Town, page 21:
   • If you want something other than quick brown foxes, perhaps you'd like a hunk of lorem ipsums? 2000 March 25, Suzanne S. Barnhill <sbarnhill@mvps.org>, “Re: I think there is a combination of keys . , .”, in microsoft.public.word.printingfonts (Usenet), archived from the original on 01 Jun 2026:
   • Not wanting to bother anyone by asking permission at such a busy church, I dragged it [a typewriter] out of the basement to my office, cleaned it off and bought a fresh ink ribbon for it online. I clacked out a few “quick brown foxes” on it and the noise of it brought other folks from the office to my door. 2018 October 22, Alex Wirth, “Grace in the mechanism: How a typewriter changed the way I pray and preach”, in Presbyterian Outlook, volume 200, number 15, via EBSCOhost, →ISSN, page 29:
   • Well, I was adequate, but typing was something I practiced in every spare moment. And this is where “Shambleau” began, halfway down a sheet of yellow paper otherwise filled up with boring quick-brown-foxes, alphabets, and things like “The White Knight is sliding down the poker. He balances very badly,” to lighten the practice. 1975, C[atherine] L[ucille] Moore, “Afterword: Footnote to “Shambleau”...and Others”, in Lester Del Rey [pseudonym; Leonard Knapp], editor, The Best of C. L. Moore, Garden City, New York: Nelson Doubleday, Inc., via Internet Archive, page 306:

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