book (fig. and allusive uses of 2 are freq.)
1.
writing,
document
1H4 III. i. 224
“By that time will our
book, I think, be drawn.”
2.
volume or literary
work read or consulted (freq.); fig.
John II. i. 485
“this book of
beauty”
(= Bianca),
Rom. I. iii. 87
“This precious book of
love, this unbound lover”
(=Paris);
2H4 III. i. 45
“the book of
fate,”
R2 I. iii. 202
“the book of
life,”
Sonn. xxv. 11
“from the book of honour
razed quite”
; phrases “by the
book,” according to prescription, with due
formality AYL. V. iv. 95, Rom. I. v. 114; cf.
III. i. 108; “without book,” from
memory, by rote Tw.N. I. iii.
29,
Troil. II. i. 20
“learn a prayer without
book.”
3.
the Bible Wiv. I. iv. 152,
LLL. IV. iii. 250
“who can give an oath?
where is a book?.”
Hence book-oath
2H4 II. i. 115.
Also=religious office-book
John III. iii. 12
“Bell, book, and
candle.”
4.
=account-book
Lr. III. iv. 98
“keep . . . thy pen from
lender's books,”
Cym. III. iii. 26
“keeps his book
uncross'd”
;=memorandum-book, note-book, or book of
records, often fig.
1H6 II. iv. 101
“I'll note you in my
book of memory,”
2H6 I. i. 101
“Blotting your names
from books of memory,”
Cor. V. ii. 15
“I have been The book of
his good acts,”
Ham. I. v. 103, Per. I. i. 94; (hence)
“in” a person's
“book(s”=in
favour with him Ado I. i.
80, Shr. II. i. 223,
2H4 II. ii. 51
“in the devil's
book.”
5.
by extension of sense
2 = (i) rigmarole, screed Ado I. i. 317 [309] “a of words”; (ii) study, learning,
instruction
Tp. III. i. 94
“I'll to my ,”
AYL. II. i. 16
“tongues in trees, b-s
in the running brooks,”
H8 I. i. 122
“A beggar's Outworths
a noble's blood.”
