"cook the books" meaning in English

See cook the books in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: en-au-cook the books.ogg [Australia] Forms: cooks the books [present, singular, third-person], cooking the books [participle, present], cooked the books [participle, past], cooked the books [past]
Etymology: From the mid-17th century. A metaphor based on cooking, whereby ingredients are changed, altered and improved. Thus financial statements can also be so modified to the benefit of the "cook". Head templates: {{en-verb|*|head=cook the books}} cook the books (third-person singular simple present cooks the books, present participle cooking the books, simple past and past participle cooked the books)
  1. (idiomatic) To manipulate accounting information, especially illegally. Tags: idiomatic Categories (topical): Accounting, Crime Translations (manipulate accounting information): 做假帳 (Chinese Mandarin), 做假帐 (zuò jiǎzhàng) (Chinese Mandarin), fugya an akontys (Cornish), harjoittaa luovaa kirjanpitoa (Finnish), μαγειρεύω τα βιβλία (mageirévo ta vivlía) (Greek), 改竄する (kaizan suru) (alt: かいざんする) (Japanese), tricachonner des comptes (Norman), forfalske regnskapet (Norwegian Bokmål), manipular a contabilidade (Portuguese), fraudar a contabilidade (Portuguese), фальсифици́ровать фина́нсовую отчётность (falʹsificírovatʹ finánsovuju otčótnostʹ) [imperfective] (Russian), сфальсифици́ровать фина́нсовую отчётность (sfalʹsificírovatʹ finánsovuju otčótnostʹ) [perfective] (Russian)
    Sense id: en-cook_the_books-en-verb-KtCMvJsA Disambiguation of Accounting: 68 32 Disambiguation of Crime: 92 8 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with topic categories using raw markup, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 87 13 Disambiguation of English entries with topic categories using raw markup: 89 11 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 89 11 Disambiguation of 'manipulate accounting information': 93 7
  2. (idiomatic, by extension) To falsify an account of an event. Tags: broadly, idiomatic Translations (falsify an account of an event): 弄虛作假 (Chinese Mandarin), 弄虚作假 (nòngxūzuòjiǎ) (Chinese Mandarin), kaunistella (Finnish), vääristellä (Finnish), väärentää (Finnish), falsificar (Portuguese), adulterar (Portuguese), manipular (Portuguese)
    Sense id: en-cook_the_books-en-verb-XxKCyLcO Disambiguation of 'falsify an account of an event': 2 98
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Related terms: creative accounting, goose is cooked, white-collar crime

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for cook the books meaning in English (7.0kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "From the mid-17th century. A metaphor based on cooking, whereby ingredients are changed, altered and improved. Thus financial statements can also be so modified to the benefit of the \"cook\".",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "cooks the books",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cooking the books",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cooked the books",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cooked the books",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "head": "cook the books"
      },
      "expansion": "cook the books (third-person singular simple present cooks the books, present participle cooking the books, simple past and past participle cooked the books)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "45 55",
      "word": "creative accounting"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "45 55",
      "word": "goose is cooked"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "45 55",
      "word": "white-collar crime"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "87 13",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "89 11",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with topic categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "89 11",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "68 32",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Accounting",
          "orig": "en:Accounting",
          "parents": [
            "Finance",
            "Business",
            "Economics",
            "Society",
            "Social sciences",
            "All topics",
            "Sciences",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "92 8",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Crime",
          "orig": "en:Crime",
          "parents": [
            "Criminal law",
            "Society",
            "Law",
            "All topics",
            "Justice",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Enron Corp., once a major U.S. corporation, is now famous for cooking the books."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To manipulate accounting information, especially illegally."
      ],
      "id": "en-cook_the_books-en-verb-KtCMvJsA",
      "links": [
        [
          "manipulate",
          "manipulate"
        ],
        [
          "accounting",
          "accounting"
        ],
        [
          "illegal",
          "illegal"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To manipulate accounting information, especially illegally."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "93 7",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "manipulate accounting information",
          "word": "做假帳"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "93 7",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "zuò jiǎzhàng",
          "sense": "manipulate accounting information",
          "word": "做假帐"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "93 7",
          "code": "kw",
          "lang": "Cornish",
          "sense": "manipulate accounting information",
          "word": "fugya an akontys"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "93 7",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "manipulate accounting information",
          "word": "harjoittaa luovaa kirjanpitoa"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "93 7",
          "code": "el",
          "lang": "Greek",
          "roman": "mageirévo ta vivlía",
          "sense": "manipulate accounting information",
          "word": "μαγειρεύω τα βιβλία"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "93 7",
          "alt": "かいざんする",
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "roman": "kaizan suru",
          "sense": "manipulate accounting information",
          "word": "改竄する"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "93 7",
          "code": "nrf",
          "lang": "Norman",
          "sense": "manipulate accounting information",
          "word": "tricachonner des comptes"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "93 7",
          "code": "nb",
          "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
          "sense": "manipulate accounting information",
          "word": "forfalske regnskapet"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "93 7",
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "manipulate accounting information",
          "word": "manipular a contabilidade"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "93 7",
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "manipulate accounting information",
          "word": "fraudar a contabilidade"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "93 7",
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "falʹsificírovatʹ finánsovuju otčótnostʹ",
          "sense": "manipulate accounting information",
          "tags": [
            "imperfective"
          ],
          "word": "фальсифици́ровать фина́нсовую отчётность"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "93 7",
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "sfalʹsificírovatʹ finánsovuju otčótnostʹ",
          "sense": "manipulate accounting information",
          "tags": [
            "perfective"
          ],
          "word": "сфальсифици́ровать фина́нсовую отчётность"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2012, R.I. Iyemere, The Ordeals: Poems in Memory of Ada-Emilia Valmori, page 146",
          "text": "Those that cooked the books and presented them with bias minds; They sugar-coated the stories; and twisted and exaggerated events",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, Seamus McGraw, Betting the Farm on a Drought",
          "text": "Two years after he received his piece of the Nobel Prize, Mann was drawn into controversy over a series of e-mails stolen from the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom that some climate change skeptics charged provided proof that Mann and his fellow scientists were cooking the books on climate, though for what reason, the skeptics never made clear.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2017, Stephen Warde Anderson, The Anderson Revisionist Bible: The Books of Moses, page 280",
          "text": "One does suspect that the authors of Numbers cooked the books a bit to make the more important and respected tribes (Judah, for instance) look good with higher population numbers.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To falsify an account of an event."
      ],
      "id": "en-cook_the_books-en-verb-XxKCyLcO",
      "links": [
        [
          "falsify",
          "falsify"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, by extension) To falsify an account of an event."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly",
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "2 98",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "falsify an account of an event",
          "word": "弄虛作假"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 98",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "nòngxūzuòjiǎ",
          "sense": "falsify an account of an event",
          "word": "弄虚作假"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 98",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "falsify an account of an event",
          "word": "kaunistella"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 98",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "falsify an account of an event",
          "word": "vääristellä"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 98",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "falsify an account of an event",
          "word": "väärentää"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 98",
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "falsify an account of an event",
          "word": "falsificar"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 98",
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "falsify an account of an event",
          "word": "adulterar"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 98",
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "falsify an account of an event",
          "word": "manipular"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-cook the books.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/66/En-au-cook_the_books.ogg/En-au-cook_the_books.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/En-au-cook_the_books.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "cook the books"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
    "English verbs",
    "en:Accounting",
    "en:Crime"
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From the mid-17th century. A metaphor based on cooking, whereby ingredients are changed, altered and improved. Thus financial statements can also be so modified to the benefit of the \"cook\".",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "cooks the books",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cooking the books",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cooked the books",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cooked the books",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "head": "cook the books"
      },
      "expansion": "cook the books (third-person singular simple present cooks the books, present participle cooking the books, simple past and past participle cooked the books)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "creative accounting"
    },
    {
      "word": "goose is cooked"
    },
    {
      "word": "white-collar crime"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Enron Corp., once a major U.S. corporation, is now famous for cooking the books."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To manipulate accounting information, especially illegally."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "manipulate",
          "manipulate"
        ],
        [
          "accounting",
          "accounting"
        ],
        [
          "illegal",
          "illegal"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To manipulate accounting information, especially illegally."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2012, R.I. Iyemere, The Ordeals: Poems in Memory of Ada-Emilia Valmori, page 146",
          "text": "Those that cooked the books and presented them with bias minds; They sugar-coated the stories; and twisted and exaggerated events",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, Seamus McGraw, Betting the Farm on a Drought",
          "text": "Two years after he received his piece of the Nobel Prize, Mann was drawn into controversy over a series of e-mails stolen from the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom that some climate change skeptics charged provided proof that Mann and his fellow scientists were cooking the books on climate, though for what reason, the skeptics never made clear.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2017, Stephen Warde Anderson, The Anderson Revisionist Bible: The Books of Moses, page 280",
          "text": "One does suspect that the authors of Numbers cooked the books a bit to make the more important and respected tribes (Judah, for instance) look good with higher population numbers.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To falsify an account of an event."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "falsify",
          "falsify"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, by extension) To falsify an account of an event."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-cook the books.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/66/En-au-cook_the_books.ogg/En-au-cook_the_books.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/En-au-cook_the_books.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "manipulate accounting information",
      "word": "做假帳"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "zuò jiǎzhàng",
      "sense": "manipulate accounting information",
      "word": "做假帐"
    },
    {
      "code": "kw",
      "lang": "Cornish",
      "sense": "manipulate accounting information",
      "word": "fugya an akontys"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "manipulate accounting information",
      "word": "harjoittaa luovaa kirjanpitoa"
    },
    {
      "code": "el",
      "lang": "Greek",
      "roman": "mageirévo ta vivlía",
      "sense": "manipulate accounting information",
      "word": "μαγειρεύω τα βιβλία"
    },
    {
      "alt": "かいざんする",
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "roman": "kaizan suru",
      "sense": "manipulate accounting information",
      "word": "改竄する"
    },
    {
      "code": "nrf",
      "lang": "Norman",
      "sense": "manipulate accounting information",
      "word": "tricachonner des comptes"
    },
    {
      "code": "nb",
      "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
      "sense": "manipulate accounting information",
      "word": "forfalske regnskapet"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "manipulate accounting information",
      "word": "manipular a contabilidade"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "manipulate accounting information",
      "word": "fraudar a contabilidade"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "falʹsificírovatʹ finánsovuju otčótnostʹ",
      "sense": "manipulate accounting information",
      "tags": [
        "imperfective"
      ],
      "word": "фальсифици́ровать фина́нсовую отчётность"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "sfalʹsificírovatʹ finánsovuju otčótnostʹ",
      "sense": "manipulate accounting information",
      "tags": [
        "perfective"
      ],
      "word": "сфальсифици́ровать фина́нсовую отчётность"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "falsify an account of an event",
      "word": "弄虛作假"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "nòngxūzuòjiǎ",
      "sense": "falsify an account of an event",
      "word": "弄虚作假"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "falsify an account of an event",
      "word": "kaunistella"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "falsify an account of an event",
      "word": "vääristellä"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "falsify an account of an event",
      "word": "väärentää"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "falsify an account of an event",
      "word": "falsificar"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "falsify an account of an event",
      "word": "adulterar"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "falsify an account of an event",
      "word": "manipular"
    }
  ],
  "word": "cook the books"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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