| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| book |
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| PRONUNCIATION: |  b k |
| NOUN: | 1. A set of written, printed, or blank pages fastened along one side and encased between protective covers. 2a. A printed or written literary work. b. A main division of a larger printed or written work: a book of the Old Testament. 3a. A volume in which financial or business transactions are recorded. b. books Financial or business records considered as a group: checked the expenditures on the books. 4a. A libretto. b. The script of a play. 5. Book a. The Bible. b. The Koran. 6a. A set of prescribed standards or rules on which decisions are based: runs the company by the book. b. Something regarded as a source of knowledge or understanding. c. The total amount of experience, knowledge, understanding, and skill that can be used in solving a problem or performing a task: We used every trick in the book to finish the project on schedule. d. Informal Factual information, especially of a private nature: What's the book on him? 7. A packet of like or similar items bound together: a book of matches. 8. A record of bets placed on a race. 9. Games The number of card tricks needed before any tricks can have scoring value, as the first six tricks taken by the declaring side in bridge. | | VERB: | Inflected forms: booked, book·ing, books
| | TRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To list or register in or as if in a book. 2a. To record charges against (a person) on a police blotter. b. Sports To record the flagrant fouls of (a player) for possible disciplinary action, as in soccer. 3. To arrange for (tickets or lodgings, for example) in advance; reserve. 4. To hire or engage: The manager booked a magic show for Saturday night. 5. To allocate time for. | | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | To make a reservation: Book early if you want good seats. | | ADJECTIVE: | 1. Of or relating to knowledge learned from books rather than actual experience: has book smarts but not street smarts. 2. Appearing in a company's financial records: book profits. | | IDIOMS: | bring to book To demand an explanation from; call to account. in (one's) book In one's opinion: In my book they both are wrong. like a book Thoroughly; completely: I know my child like a book. one for the books A noteworthy act or occurrence. throw the book at 1. To make all possible charges against (a lawbreaker, for example). 2. To reprimand or punish severely. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English bok, from Old English b c. See bh go- in Appendix I. | | OTHER FORMS: | book er —NOUN
| | SYNONYMS: | book, bespeak, engage, reserve These verbs mean to cause something to be set aside in advance, as for one's use or possession: will book a hotel room; made sure their selections were bespoken; engaged a box for the opera season; reserving a table at a restaurant. | | WORD HISTORY: | From an etymological perspective, book and beech are branches of the same tree. The Germanic root of both words is *bk-, ultimately from an Indo-European root meaning “beech tree.” The Old English form of book is bc, from Germanic *bk-, “written document, book.” The Old English form of beech is b ce, from Germanic *bk-jn, “beech tree,” because the early Germanic peoples used strips of beech wood to write on. A similar semantic development occurred in Latin. The Latin word for book is liber, whence library. Liber, however, originally meant “bark”—that is, the smooth inner bark of a tree, which the early Romans likewise used to write on.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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