Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) to take a private bet, which is written down in one’s betting book.

1819		P. Egan Key to the Picture of the Fancy going to a Fight 9: At the small table in the corner, two amateurs are discovered ‘booking’ some bets.
1846		Censor (London) 11 Jan. 6/1: [S]ome staid-looking, powdered, yellow-coated personage, who calmly takes down the wager, and ‘books it’.
1847		‘Epistle from Joe Muggins’s Dog’ in Era (London) 24 Jan. 4/1: The Yokel never left him [i.e. a bookmaker] until he had booked a good bit.
1854		G.J. Whyte-Melville General Bounce (1891) 155: It was no doubt esteemed a ‘sporting offer,’ not that Oberson seems to have been man enough to ‘book it.’.
1989		A. Vachss Hard Candy (1990) 162: We’d booked twenty cartons of cigarettes against a hundred that Dayton wouldn’t outlive Wesley.

(b) to wager outside a sporting context.

1842		J. Labern ‘Fairlop Fair’ Comic Songs 21: All at once the tail fell down / And spilt us in the road [...] We book’d ourselves for dead.
1970		G.F. Newman Sir, You Bastard 90: I’m booking it that he’ll collect it on his way to work.
1974		G.F. Newman You Flash Bastard 212: Maybe your not as smart as I booked you to be. You must think I’m a bit simple. I was pulling your sort of strokes when I was a TDC, and getting away with them.
1998		D. Jenkins Rude Behavior 170: ‘I don’t think I’d bet my stack on how different Tracy is.’ ‘You’ll see. You can book it’.

(c) to pay out bets.

1884

H. Smart Post to Finish I 16: I got twenty-eight pound to two from one of those ready-money men, and he booked up like a gentleman as soon as the race was over.

(d) to work as a bookmaker; to take bets; thus booking n.

1905		F. Hutchison Philosophy of Johnny the Gent 86: ‘Y’see the punk in [sic] bookin’ fer a bankroll guy that’s all right, but the Wise Cracker tells him to hold out the bet himself, fer the horse ain’t got no chance’.
1917		Van Loan ‘By a Hair’ in Old Man Curry 88: Regulator, 8 to 5 – Holy Moses! What kind of booking is this, anyway?
1931		D. Runyon ‘The Snatching of Bookie Bob’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 127: If you gentlemen wish to bet on these races I will gladly book to you.
1952		(con. 1920s) ‘Harry Grey’ Hoods (1953) 246: We do shylocking, and a little booking there – horses and numbers.
1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 85: Chilly was beginning to take a few bets. He was currently booking football.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 12: Jakie used to book out of a candy store on 108th Street.
1988		D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 104: Your daddy used to book bets for me, Detective.
2000		G.V. Higgins At End of Day (2001) 161: Say the financial district — sports bookin’, loan-sharkin’, some fencin’.

(e) to arrest, to write down in a police charge book; also used of recording school rule-breaking (see cite 1902).

1826		‘Nocturnal Sports’ in Universal Songster II 180/2: The vatch [...] booked us for a night’s lodging in the nab crib.
1849		Leamington Spa Courier 4 Aug. 4/5: Take my advice quit the Voil [...] you are to a dead certainty Book’d.
1857		J. Archbold Magistrate’s Assistant (3rd edn) 446: Booked, caught, taken, or disposed of.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 158/1: Where under the sun ’ave you all been this last hunder years. Perish me, if I didn’t think you were all ‘boked’ [sic] by this time.
1861		N.E. Police Gaz. (Boston, MA) 12 Oct. 3/2: [in an unofficial sense] You were watched, and your confuct booked.
1886		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 27 Feb. 7/2: The other prisoners were, one after the other, ‘booked’ for being found in an opium den.
1902		Wodehouse Pothunters 49: ‘If he books a chap out of bounds it keeps him happy for a week’.
1906		E. Pugh Spoilers 250: It’s a red ’ot trail this time an’ I’m booked.
1911		D. Runyon ‘The Man Who Can’t Go Back’ 2 Oct. [synd. col.] I’ve seen him strut in Paris when he had the dough galore, / And as an able seaman seen him booked.
1928		J. Callahan Man’s Grim Justice 16: The big, red-faced Irish cop [...] ‘booked’ me (put down my name and address).
1931		D. Runyon ‘The Bloodhounds of Broadway’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 102: Regret is being booked in the jailhouse.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 33: We were booked at the police station house.
1952		‘Hal Ellson’ Golden Spike 239: At the precinct station, they were booked, fingerprinted, and questioned again.
1966		J. Mills Panic in Needle Park (1971) 149: Or maybe the narco can get them cut loose before they’re booked.
1978		F. Norman Dead Butler Caper 22: Us’ll not book you for having worn tyres, zur.
1986		R. Campbell In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 42: They didn’t book you on drunk driving?
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 173: Soon as I finished booking you, I had these compared with slips seized around town by Vice.
2000		C. Cook Robbers (2001) 215: All right, Hank, book ’er.
2012		C. Stella Rough Riders 112: We’re still booking his wife when she gets out.

(a) to look at, to examine, to notice.

1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 276: A large kettle, boiling at the spout, was speedily introduced, but, instead of water, read boiling Daffy. The assumed gravity of Bob’s mug upon playing off this trick was quite a treat; but I am happy to say Crooky booked it.
1854		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) II 239: You twitch up the cuff of your coat, quite accidentally, and then you book your king.
1902		Wodehouse Pothunters 33: ‘There’s a pane taken clean out. I booked it in a second as I was going past’.
1968		‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2 11: Book, v. To look at.

(b) (US campus, also book ass, book it, book tits, book up) to study assiduously; thus booking n., studying.

1963		Dundes & Schonhorn ‘Kansas University Sl.: A New Generation’ in AS XXXVIII:3 167: To study extremely diligently for an examination: book it.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 86: Book ass [...] Book tits Work (study) hard and concentratedly.
1970		Current Sl. V:1 19: Book it, v. To study.
1975		G. Underwood ‘Razorback Sl.’ in AS L:1/2 56: book up vi Study.
1976		Eble Campus Sl. Nov. 1: book – to study for classes: Did you book last night? [...] book it – to study a great deal.
1982		W. Safire What’s The Good Word? 301: New terms for ‘cramming’ are ‘shedding’ (from ‘woodshed’), ‘speeding,’ and ‘heavy booking’ or ‘mega-booking.’.
1983		R. Price Breaks 75: I’ll be bookin’ all day. I’ll show you the law school.
1988		Eble Campus Sl. Oct. 2: book it – study.