lord Coleridge - Judicial elucidation of acts:

However lord Coleridge stated in Rv PETERS  as like "I am quite aware which dictionaries are not to be taken as authoritative exponents of the connotation of words utilized in an Act of Parliament although it is a well-known rule of courts of law that words should be taken to be utilized in their ordinary sense, and we are however sent for instruction to these books".

Because a court may refer to, or consult that dictionaries in the lack of any authority or judicial guidance but it is not bound through what is stated therein.

Moreover textbooks may be referred to for assistance in finding the true construction of a statute also so even Lord Goddard stated in BASTIN v DAVIES that a court would certainly not hesitate to disagree with a statement in a textbook as however authoritative or however long it had stood whether it is thought right to do so.