The Best English Dictionary, In Your Opinion . . .

tak

I know a lot depends on what you want to get from it, but what in readers' views is the best English dictionary ?

Personally, all I have is the 1992 7th Edition Chambers. I got it through a Sunday Times book club for £1 and put a hard back on it myself for handier use. It has 190,000 references.

A friend now resident in Germany has asked me to recommend a good dictionary for reading. He has 2 young ones and is teaching them English at home, mostly with story books.
I first advised Chambers - as they have an unrivalled lexicon of slang words and phrases both from UK and colonies.
But he wanted a more "literary" dictionary.
In the past I had the Compact Edition of the full OED. But this is photo-reduced and you need a magnifying glass to use it. The books are also too big for kids to manage.
In a local shop I saw 3 other options.
The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary;
The Concise Oxford English Dictionary; and
The Oxford Dictionary of English.

Of the rest I have heard of Webster's but doubt if they could rival the OED derivatives . . .
Collins ED is big enough but would it have the depth of centuries to its words/meanings ?

Are there still others ?

Talliesin

Full Oxford if you can afford it (about 5 grand for the 20 volume leather bound set, a grand for the normal bound 20 volumes, a couple of hundred for the one volume with magnifying glass).

onelook.com for online.

While the OED is unparalleled, the derived versions aren't that great IMO.