Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 1.pdf/307

 1852. F. E. Smedley, Lewis Arundel, ch. vi. 'By which time he expects to be so hard up that he must marry somebody, and as there will be plenty of the needful, she will suit his book as well as any other.

Booked, ppl. adj. (common).—Caught; fixed; disposed of; destined, etc. From the bookkeeping term—entered in a book, or registered.

1840. Hood, Up the Rhine, p. 6. I am booked for a much longer journey.

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 446. Booked, caught, taken, or disposed of.

1881. Jas. Payn, Grape from a Thorn, ch. xxiii. 'I don't remember anyone having given me an "engaged ring" before; and it's not leap year, neither. However, the lady's booked, which is a great relief.'

French thieves use être planché for 'to be booked'; also être mort (i.e., 'to be dead'); the adjective is rendered by faitré, and the person booked is un gerbable.

Book-Form, subs. (sporting).—The relative powers of speed or endurance of race-horses as set down in the Racing Calendar or 'book.'

Bookie or Booky, subs. (sporting).—An abbreviated form of bookmaker (q.v.).

1885. Eng. III. Mag., April, p. 509. No rowdy ring, but a few quiet and well-known bookies, who were ready enough to lay the odds to a modest fiver.

1889. Sporting Times, 29 June. He now had occasion to speedily hie To the bookie who laid him the bet, Who was one of the small and particular fry, That at times, when convenient, forget.

Bookmaker, subs. (sporting).—The English Encyclopedia says:—In betting there are two parties—one called 'layers,' as the bookmakers are termed, and the other 'backers,' in which class may be included owners of horses as well as the public. The backer takes the odds which the bookmaker lays against a horse, the former speculating upon the success of the animal, the latter upon its defeat; and taking the case of Cremorne for the Derby of 1872, just before the race, the bookmaker would have laid 3 to 1, or perhaps £1000 to £300 against him, by which transaction, if the horse won, as he did, the backer would win £1000 for risking £300, and the bookmaker lose the £1000 which he risked to win the smaller sum. At first sight this may appear an act of very questionable policy on the part of the bookmaker; but really it is not so, because so far from running a greater risk than the backer, he runs less, inasmuch as it is his plan to lay the same amount (£1000) against every horse in the race, and as there can be but one winner, he would in all probability receive more than enough money from the many losers to pay the stated sum of £1000 which the chances are he has laid against the one winner, whichever it is.—See also Book, subs., sense 1, and Bookie.

1862. London Review, Aug. 30, p. 188. Betting there seemed to be none we could not perceive a single book or bookmaker.

1880. W. Day, Racehorse in Training, ch. xxiv., p. 245. Bookmakers pursue a legitimate and lucrative trade by laying against all horses as they appear in the market.

1883. Hawley Smart, Hard Lines, ch. iii. Finding that the bookmaker whom for once they have landed for 'a thousand to thirty' is hopelessly insolvent.