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.
      [1913 Webster]

   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.
         [1913 Webster]

   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.
         [1913 Webster]

   2. A composition, written or printed; a treatise.
      [1913 Webster]

            A good book is the precious life blood of a master
            spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a
            life beyond life.                     --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. A part or subdivision of a treatise or literary work; as,
      the tenth book of "Paradise Lost."
      [1913 Webster]

   4. A volume or collection of sheets in which accounts are
      kept; a register of debts and credits, receipts and
      expenditures, etc.; -- often used in the plural; as, they
      got a subpoena to examine our books.

   Syn: ledger, leger, account book, book of account. [1913
        Webster + WordNet 1.5]

   5. Six tricks taken by one side, in the game of bridge or
      whist, being the minimum number of tricks that must be
      taken before any additional tricks are counted as part of
      the score for that hand; in certain other games, two or
      more corresponding cards, forming a set.
      [1913 Webster +PJC]

   6. (Drama) a written version of a play or other dramatic
      composition; -- used in preparing for a performance.

   Syn: script, playscript.
        [WordNet 1.5]

   7. a set of paper objects (tickets, stamps, matches, checks
      etc.) bound together by one edge, like a book; as, he
      bought a book of stamps.
      [WordNet 1.5]

   8. a book or list, actual or hypothetical, containing records
      of the best performances in some endeavor; a recordbook;
      -- used in the phrase

   one for the book or

   one for the books.

   Syn: record, recordbook.
        [PJC]

   9. (Sport) the set of facts about an athlete's performance,
      such as typical performance or playing habits or methods,
      that are accumulated by potential opponents as an aid in
      deciding how best to compete against that athlete; as, the
      book on Ted Williams suggests pitching to him low and
      outside.
      [PJC]

   10. (Finance) same as book value.
       [PJC]

   11. (Stock market) the list of current buy and sell orders
       maintained by a stock market specialist.
       [PJC]

   12. (Commerce) the purchase orders still outstanding and
       unfilled on a company's ledger; as, book to bill ratio.
       [PJC]

   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.
         [1913 Webster]

   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 (Zool.), one of several species of minute,
      wingless insects injurious to books and papers. They
      belong to the Pseudoneuroptera.

   Book moth (Zool.), 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 (Zool.), 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.

   by the book, according to standard procedures; using the
      correct or usual methods.

   cook the books, make fallacious entries in or otherwise
      manipulate a financial record book for fraudulent
      purposes.

   To curse by bell, book, and candle. See under Bell.

   To make book (Horse Racing), to conduct a business of
      accepting or placing bets from others on horse races.

   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.

   off the books, not recorded in the official financial
      records of a business; -- usually used of payments made in
      cash to fraudulently avoid payment of taxes or of
      employment benefits.

   one for the book, one for the books, something
      extraordinary, such as a record-breaking performance or a
      remarkable accomplishment.

   To speak by the book, to speak with minute exactness.

   to throw the book at, to impose the maximum fine or penalty
      for an offense; -- usually used of judges imposing
      penalties for criminal acts.

   Without book.
       (a) By memory.
       (b) Without authority.

   to write the book, to be the leading authority in a field;
      -- usually used in the past tense; as, he's not just an
      average expert, he wrote the book.
      [1913 Webster +PJC]

canonic \ca*non"ic\ (k[.a]*n[o^]n"[i^]k), canonical
\ca*non"ic*al\ (k[.a]*n[o^]n"[i^]*kal), a. [L. canonicus, LL.
   canonicalis, fr. L. canon: cf. F. canonique. See canon.]
   Of or pertaining to a canon; established by, or according to,
   a canon or canons. "The oath of canonical obedience."
   --Hallam.
   [1913 Webster]

   2. Appearing in a Biblical canon; as, a canonical book of the
      Christian New Testament.
      [PJC]

   3. Accepted as authoritative; recognized.
      [PJC]

   4. (Math.) In its standard form, usually also the simplest
      form; -- of an equation or coordinate.
      [PJC]

   5. (Linguistics) Reduced to the simplest and most significant
      form possible without loss of generality; as, a canonical
      syllable pattern. Opposite of nonstandard.

   Syn: standard. [WordNet 1.5]

   6. Pertaining to or resembling a musical canon.
      [PJC]

   Canonical books, or Canonical Scriptures, those books
      which are declared by the canons of the church to be of
      divine inspiration; -- called collectively the canon.
      The Roman Catholic Church holds as canonical several books
      which Protestants reject as apocryphal.

   Canonical epistles, an appellation given to the epistles
      called also general or catholic. See Catholic epistles,
      under Canholic.

   Canonical form (Math.), the simples or most symmetrical
      form to which all functions of the same class can be
      reduced without lose of generality.

   Canonical hours, certain stated times of the day, fixed by
      ecclesiastical laws, and appropriated to the offices of
      prayer and devotion; also, certain portions of the
      Breviary, to be used at stated hours of the day. In
      England, this name is also given to the hours from 8 a. m.
      to 3 p. m. (formerly 8 a. m. to 12 m.) before and after
      which marriage can not be legally performed in any parish
      church.

   Canonical letters, letters of several kinds, formerly given
      by a bishop to traveling clergymen or laymen, to show that
      they were entitled to receive the communion, and to
      distinguish them from heretics.

   Canonical life, the method or rule of living prescribed by
      the ancient clergy who lived in community; a course of
      living prescribed for the clergy, less rigid than the
      monastic, and more restrained that the secular.

   Canonical obedience, submission to the canons of a church,
      especially the submission of the inferior clergy to their
      bishops, and of other religious orders to their superiors.
      

   Canonical punishments, such as the church may inflict, as
      excommunication, degradation, penance, etc.

   Canonical sins (Anc. Church.), those for which capital
      punishment or public penance decreed by the canon was
      inflicted, as idolatry, murder, adultery, heresy.
      [1913 Webster]