book.
A collection of sheets of paper bound together to hinge at one edge, containing printed or written material, pictures, etc.
Meaning & usage
A collection of sheets of paper bound together to hinge at one edge, containing printed or written material, pictures, etc.
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.
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 bookmaker (a person who takes bets on sporting events and similar); bookie; turf accountant.
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
The script of a musical or opera.
Records of the accounts of a business.
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).
Six tricks taken by one side.
Four of a kind.
A document, held by the referee, of the incidents that happened in a game.
A list of all players who have been booked (received a warning) in a game.
The list of mares that a stallion will breed in a given season.
A list of the races that a jockey is scheduled to ride in.
The twenty-sixth Lenormand card.
Any source of instruction.
The accumulated body of knowledge passed down among black pimps.
A portfolio of one's previous work in the industry.
The sum of chess knowledge in the opening or endgame.
The opposite-colored bishops endgame is usually a book draw.
A book move
A package of silk.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂ǵosder.? Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂g-der.? Proto-Germanic *bōks Proto-West Germanic *bōk Old English bōc Middle English bok English book From Middle English bok, book, from Old English bōc, from Proto-West Germanic *bōk, from Proto-Germanic *bōks. Bookmaker sense by clipping. Cognates Cognate with Scots beuk, buik, buke (“book”), Yola buke (“book”), North Frisian Bok, buk, bök (“book”), Saterland Frisian Bouk (“book”), West Frisian, Dutch boek (“book”), Alemannic German Buech (“book”), Bavarian Buach (“book”), Central Franconian Booch, Buch (“book”), German, Luxembourgish Buch (“book”), German Low German Book (“book”), Limburgish book, Bouk (“book”), Vilamovian büch (“book”), Yiddish בוך (bukh, “book”), Danish bog (“book”), Elfdalian buok (“book”), Faroese, Icelandic bók (“book”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish bok (“book”).
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.
To write down, to register or record in a book or as in a book.
They booked that message from the hill.
To add a name to the list of people who are participating in something.
I booked a flight to New York.
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.
To issue a caution to, usually a yellow card, or a red card if a yellow card has already been issued.
To travel very fast.
He was really booking until he passed the speed trap.
To record bets as bookmaker.
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.
To move or leave, often hurriedly and abruptly.
He was here earlier, but he booked.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Old English bōcian Middle English booken English book From Middle English booken, boken, from Old English bōcian, ġebōcian, from the noun (see above).
simple past of bake
Where this word comes from
From Middle English book, bok, from Old English bōc, from Proto-Germanic *bōk, first and third person singular indicative past tense of Proto-Germanic *bakaną (“to bake”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.