Pronunciation
- enPR: bo͝ok, IPA: /bʊk/
- enPR: bo͞ok IPA: /buːk/ (still sometimes northern England; otherwise obsolete)
book (plural books)
- A collection of sheets of paper bound together to hinge at one edge, containing printed or written material, pictures, etc.
- Q en
- 1962, James East Irby translating Luis Borges as "The Library of Babel":
- I repeat: it suffices that a book be possible for it to exist. Only the impossible is excluded. For example: no book can be a ladder, although no doubt there are books which discuss and negate and demonstrate this possibility and others whose structure corresponds to that of a ladder.
- 1983, Steve Horelick & al., "Reading Rainbow":
- I can be anything.
Take a look!
It's in a book:
A reading rainbow.
- I can be anything.
- 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, page 51:
- Trefusis's quarters could be described in one word. Books. Books and books and books. And then, just when an observer might be lured into thinking that that must be it, more books... Trefusis himself was highly dismissive of them. ‘Waste of trees,’ he had once said. ‘Stupid, ugly, clumsy, heavy things. The sooner technology comes up with a reliable alternative the better... The world is so fond of saying that books should be “treated with respect”. But when are we told that words should be treated with respect?’
- She opened the book to page 37 and began to read aloud.
- He was frustrated because he couldn't find anything about dinosaurs in the book.
- A long work fit for publication, typically prose, such as a novel or textbook, and typically published as such a bound collection of sheets, but now sometimes electronically as an e-book.
- I have three copies of his first book.
- A major division of a long work.
- Genesis is the first book of the Bible.
- Many readers find the first book of A Tale of Two Cities to be confusing.
- Synonyms: tome, volume
- (gambling) A record of betting (from the use of a notebook to record what each person has bet).
- I'm running a book on who is going to win the race.
- A convenient collection, in a form resembling a book, of small paper items for individual use.
- a book of stamps
- a book of raffle tickets
- Synonyms: booklet
- (theatre) The script of a musical or opera.
- Synonyms: libretto
- (usually, in the plural) Records of the accounts of a business.
- Synonyms: account, record
- (legal, colloquial) A book award, a recognition for receiving the highest grade in a class (traditionally an actual book, but recently more likely a letter or certificate acknowledging the achievement).
- (whist) Six tricks taken by one side.
- (poker slang) four of a kind
- (sports) A document, held by the referee, of the incidents happened in the game.
- (sports, by extension) A list of all players who have been booked (received a warning) in a game.
- (cartomancy) The twenty-sixth Lenormand card.
- (figurative) Any source of instruction.
- See Thesaurus:book
book (books, present participle booking; past and past participle booked)
- (transitive) To reserve (something) for future use.
- I want to book a hotel room for tomorrow night
- I can book tickets for the concert next week.
- Synonyms: reserve
- (transitive) To write down, to register or record in a book or as in a book.
- (law enforcement, transitive) To record the name and other details of a suspected offender and the offence for later judicial action.
- The police booked him for driving too fast.
- (sports) To issue with a caution, usually a yellow card, or a red card if a yellow card has already been issued.
- (intransitive, slang) To travel very fast.
- He was really booking, until he passed the speed trap.
- Synonyms: bomb, hurtle, rocket, speed, shoot, whiz
- To record bets as bookmaker.
- (transitive, law student slang) To receive the highest grade in a class.
- The top three students had a bet on which one was going to book their intellectual property class.
- (intransitive, slang) To leave.
- He was here earlier, but he booked.
- (UK dialectal, Northern England) simple past tense of bake
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