cook the books

idiomatic phrase

informal
: to alter official accounting records in order to deceive or mislead
Congress cooked the books with phony spending cuts and accounting gimmickry to appear to reduce the federal deficit.Colleen O'Connor

Word History

First Known Use

1850, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of cook the books was in 1850

Dictionary Entries Near cook the books

Cite this Entry

“Cook the books.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cook%20the%20books. Accessed 25 Mar. 2023.

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!


What Did You Just Call Me?

  • brown chihuahua sitting on the floor with squinting eyes looking at the camera
  • Before we went to her house, Hannah told us her aunt was a flibbertigibbet.
Name That Thing

You know what it looks like… but what is it called?

TAKE THE QUIZ
Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can with using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.

Can you make 12 words with 7 letters?

PLAY