babbitt

Ellipsis of babbitt metal or Babbitt metal (“a soft white alloy of variable composition used in bearings to diminish friction”).

Running while low on oil had galled the babbitt.

Figure 2 represents a top plan of the "Babbitting" jig, placed in or upon a cast-iron frame, preparatory to the pouring or casting of the "Babbitt" or other soft metal on to or around its journals, to form journal bearings in said cast-iron frame.

To line (something) with babbitt metal to reduce friction.

The main bearings were babbitted and line-bored.

The caps for these journal-boxes or bearings may be Babbited by this same jig, and they would, of course, exactly conform to the other portions of the bearings in the frame. […] This drilling jig is a negative of the interior of the frame. It has two sets of bearings, c d and e f, which are at right angles to each other, and which set in the longitudinal and transverse bearings that have been made and "Babbited" in the cast frame, and thus steady and hold it.

Alternative letter-case form of Babbitt (“a person who subscribes complacently to materialistic middle-class ideals”).

One speaks of a babbitt habit, a babbitt era. Nothing is more true. America recognized itself in Babbitt, it demurred, but it also admired.

… a "babbitt" is a person full of self-confident bluster who is nevertheless a narrowminded philistine and a hypocrite.]