Definition of: "bring someone to book" with explanation and origin
Definition of: bring someone to book with explanation and origin? Meaning of bring someone to book with examples in English idiom dictionary.
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Definition of: "bring someone to book" with explanation and origin
bring someone to book
bring someone to book
Meaning
- make somebody accountable for their conduct.
- to punish someone.
- legally punish or summon someone to account for their actions.
The idiom “bring someone to book” is used when referring to holding someone accountable for something they had done. Its term usually means justice for a wrongdoing. Whether it be a crime, or something done to someone else it means to make them admit the wrongdoing and apologize publicly or to suffer a consequence for their actions. The book in this instance is usually referring to a law or a rule that was written or otherwise known.
Example Sentences
- If Jessica continues with this behavior, I will have no choice but to bring her to book.
- Ethan stole that boy’s bike. Bringing him to book is the only option to make him understand his actions are wrong.
- I will bring that man to book for the crime he has committed.
- Bringing Joshua to book for bullying that child on the playground is the only solution to help him understand his actions are unacceptable.
- It was frustrating for the victims’ kin as the police and court failed to bring anyone to book for the crime.
Origin
The phrase “bringing someone to book” is more widely used in British English-speaking countries such as England and Australia. Later, it became a phrase that has been used in America as well.
Where the idiom originated is much harder to determine. The term “book” has changed meanings over the years. So trying to find the person responsible for the phrase or even the exact time the phrase was coined is a little difficult and there are no records to help determine the approximate timeframe.
Some accounts will say as early as the 800s, during the time of King Alfred. The term book usually means a collection of accounts, usually legal documents such as land deeds or even accounts of finances.
It was the early 1800s when you can see the phrase being used more widely. Usually in legal proceedings or situations involving some kind of punishment.
The Origins of bring someone to book
Book, Law, SocialEnglish
Related Dictionary
- English Definition & Meaning Dictionary
- English Idioms and phrases Dictionary
- Dictionnaire Français
- Dictionnaire d'expressions idiomatiques et de phrases en français
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English Idioms and phrases
An idiom is a common word or phrase with a figurative, non-literal meaning that is understood culturally and differs from what its composite words' denotations would suggest; i.e. the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words (although some idioms do retain their literal meanings – see the example "kick the bucket" below). By another definition, an idiom is a speech form or an expression of a given language that is peculiar to itself grammatically or cannot be understood from the individual meanings of its elements.[3] For example, an English speaker would understand the phrase "kick the bucket" to mean "to die" – and also to actually kick a bucket. Furthermore, they would understand when each meaning is being used in context.
To evoke the desired effect in the listener, idioms require a precise replication of the phrase: not even articles can be used interchangeably (e.g. "kick a bucket" only retains the literal meaning of the phrase but not the idiomatic meaning).
Idioms should not be confused with other figures of speech such as metaphors, which evoke an image by use of implicit comparisons (e.g., "the man of steel"); similes, which evoke an image by use of explicit comparisons (e.g., "faster than a speeding bullet"); or hyperbole, which exaggerates an image beyond truthfulness (e.g., "more powerful than a locomotive"). Idioms are also not to be confused with proverbs, which are simple sayings that express a truth based on common sense or practical experience.
