资料来源 : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Book \Book\ (b[oo^]k), n. [OE. book, bok, AS. b[=o]c; akin to
Goth. b[=o]ka a letter, in pl. book, writing, Icel. b[=o]k,
Sw. bok, Dan. bog, OS. b[=o]k, D. boek, OHG. puoh, G. buch;
and fr. AS. b[=o]c, b[=e]ce, beech; because the ancient
Saxons and Germans in general wrote runes on pieces of
beechen board. Cf. {Beech}.]
1. A collection of sheets of paper, or similar material,
blank, written, or printed, bound together; commonly, many
folded and bound sheets containing continuous printing or
writing.
Note: When blank, it is called a blank book. When printed,
the term often distinguishes a bound volume, or a
volume of some size, from a pamphlet.
Note: It has been held that, under the copyright law, a book
is not necessarily a volume made of many sheets bound
together; it may be printed on a single sheet, as music
or a diagram of patterns. --Abbott.
2. A composition, written or printed; a treatise.
A good book is the precious life blood of a master
spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a
life beyond life. --Milton.
3. A part or subdivision of a treatise or literary work; as,
the tenth book of ``Paradise Lost.''
4. A volume or collection of sheets in which accounts are
kept; a register of debts and credits, receipts and
expenditures, etc.
5. Six tricks taken by one side, in the game of whist; in
certain other games, two or more corresponding cards,
forming a set.
Note: Book is used adjectively or as a part of many
compounds; as, book buyer, bookrack, book club, book
lore, book sale, book trade, memorandum book, cashbook.
{Book account}, an account or register of debt or credit in a
book.
{Book debt}, a debt for items charged to the debtor by the
creditor in his book of accounts.
{Book learning}, learning acquired from books, as
distinguished from practical knowledge. ``Neither does it
so much require book learning and scholarship, as good
natural sense, to distinguish true and false.'' --Burnet.
{Book louse} (Zo["o]l.), one of several species of minute,
wingless insects injurious to books and papers. They
belong to the {Pseudoneuroptera}.
{Book moth} (Zo["o]l.), the name of several species of moths,
the larv[ae] of which eat books.
{Book oath}, an oath made on {The Book}, or Bible.
{The Book of Books}, the Bible.
{Book post}, a system under which books, bulky manuscripts,
etc., may be transmitted by mail.
{Book scorpion} (Zo["o]l.), one of the false scorpions
({Chelifer cancroides}) found among books and papers. It
can run sidewise and backward, and feeds on small insects.
{Book stall}, a stand or stall, often in the open air, for
retailing books.
{Canonical books}. See {Canonical}.
{In one's books}, in one's favor. ``I was so much in his
books, that at his decease he left me his lamp.''
--Addison.
{To bring to book}.
(a) To compel to give an account.
(b) To compare with an admitted authority. ``To bring it
manifestly to book is impossible.'' --M. Arnold.
{To curse by bell, book, and candle}. See under {Bell}.
{To make a book} (Horse Racing), to lay bets (recorded in a
pocket book) against the success of every horse, so that
the bookmaker wins on all the unsuccessful horses and
loses only on the winning horse or horses.
{To speak by the book}, to speak with minute exactness.
{Without book}.
(a) By memory.
(b) Without authority.