Scrape the definition of a word (or phrase) from dictionary.com using Python

define.py

"""Scrape the definition of a word (or phrase) from dictionary.com

Usage:
======
python define.py onomatopoeia

Warning: 
========
Sometimes (at least with phrases) you'll be unexpectedly redirected 
to the definition of another only loosely related word, 
e.g. try defining "over the hill"."""

from __future__ import print_function
try: input = raw_input 
except: pass

import re
from urllib2 import urlopen


def define(word):
    """Scrape the definition of a word from dictionary.com"""
    word = word.replace(' ', '--')
    try:
        html = urlopen("http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/" + word).read()
    except:
        print('\nEither this code is out-of-date or dictionary.com '
              'does not know what "%s" means.\n' % word)
        return
    items=re.findall('<div class="def-content">\s.*?</div>', html, re.S)
    defs = [re.sub('<.*?>','', x).strip() for x in items]
    for i, d in enumerate(defs):
        print('\n', '%s'%(i+1), d)


if __name__ == '__main__':
    import sys

    if len(sys.argv) > 1:
        define('--'.join(sys.argv[1:]))
    else:
        define(input("Enter the word you'd like to define: "))