ledger

noun

1. A book for keeping notes; a record book, a register.

   “Our ledger has no entry for the human pain caused by war.”

   “My eyes kept glancing nervously to a spot on the side table just beyond the ring of light, where the ledgers containing the old church minutes were stacked.”

   “Ever grateful for his perfect recall, the policeman carefully transcribed Mr. Welch's tedious rant word for word in his ledger.”

   “A large part of Jacob's job was to take the notes and drawings that were scribbled in their notebooks out in the field and copy them into great ledgers in Rufus Benbow's library.”

   “"A ten-bob note secured me quarter of an hour alone with the attendance ledger in a backroom." Holmes said, with a touch of chagrin.”

2. A book or other scheme for keeping accounting records.

   “The firſt Leidger, or Leidger Nº A. being thus finiſh'd, it is requiſite to prepare for the erecting of thy Accounts anew in a Leidger Nº B. or thy ſecond Leidger, which thou ſhalt do thus.”

   “That all ſtock bought and ſold, is transferred or poſted from his journal, produced at his examination, into his ſaid leidgers, but the journal doth not contain all the matters concerning monies that are entered in his leidgers; […]”

   “You muſt make an accompt of balance on the next void leaf or folio of your ledger to your other accompts; but after ſo done, do not venture to draw out the accompt of balance in the ſaid folio, till you have made it exact on a ſheet of paper, ruled and titled for that purpoſe, becauſe of miſtakes or errors that may occur or happen in the courſe of ballancing your ledger; […]”

   “Commerce has done its perfect work; it has withdrawn our eyes from every general public care, from every generous manly thought, to our ledgers and our day-books—we are a nation of tills and counters, not of states and provinces!”

   “[T]his city of "merchants, whose counting-houses are their churches, whose money is their God, and whose legers, (defaced legers, of course, the delegate from Indiana will understand me,) whose legers are their bibles."”

3. A book or other scheme for keeping accounting records.

   “To be clear: there's only one ledger, but that ledger is not stored in any one central location. Rather, identical copies exist on every node—a copy on every computer.”

4. A collection of accounting entries consisting of credits and debits.

   “The Leger exhibits at one view the accounts with an individual, as it contains on the Dr. [debit] side whatever he has received, and on the Cr. [credit] side whatever he has paid. […] Let each account be posted from the Day Book in its proper place in the Leger. If a mistake be made, let it be corrected by an account in the Day Book, clearly stating the correction, and then let this account be posted in its proper place in the Leger, that no blot or erasure may disfigure its pages.”

   “He keeps a ledger or a debtor-and-creditor account between the Government and the Country, posts so much actual crime, corruption, and injustice against so much contingent advantage or sluggish prejudice, and at the bottom of the page brings in the balance of indignation and contempt, where it is due.”

5. A large, flat stone, especially one laid over a tomb.

   “In Great Britain ledgers that were placed outside of churches are sometimes termed external ledgers, while those placed within churches are called internal ledgers […] Ledgers generally sit directly on the ground or on low supports.”

   “They [19th-century headstones] instead normally recorded only the names and birth and death dates of family members buried in a plot over a period of seventy-five years, a century, or even longer. Stones that William Bigham Sr. made in Pennsylvania, especially the ledger stones but even small headstones, often seem intended to provide space for a similar record.”

6. A board attached to a wall to provide support for attaching other structural elements (such as deck joists or roof rafters) to a building.

   “[The dome was] turned upon a centre laid without any standard from below to support it. Every story of the scaffolding being circular, and the ends of the ledgers meeting as so many rings, and truly wrought, it supported itself; […]”

   “For more secure rooftop decks, a ledger (a joist mounted against the side of the house to support one side of a deck) is attached to the face of the house with perpendicular sleepers (wood planks laid horizontally at wide intervals) aligned with the roof rafters below.”

7. (abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis)Ellipsis of ledger bait (“fishing bait attached to a floating line fastened to the bank of a pond, stream, etc.”) or ledger line (“fishing line used with ledger bait for bottom fishing; ligger”).

   “[W]hen fishing for Eels with a ledger line as well as a floated line, don't be in too much haste to strike when you see a bite, for Eels generally gorge the bait, and consequently hook themselves, if you give them time, […] I always use two hooks on my ledger, placing the top one about two feet above the bottom, and to prevent it from moving from its proper place, fix a shot above it and below it, […]”

verb

1. (transitive)To record (something) in, or as if in, a ledger.

   “Our tears are bottled, to signify that our griefs are carefully measured; and they are booked, to teach us that they are numbered.—Psal[ms] lvi. 8. Our tears being bottled, and ledgered, will signify that our afflictions are not the effects of change, but the registered dispensations of heaven. Ay, and your enjoyments are by lot.”

   “I never saw a man who knew so thoroughly well all that he [Philip Syng Physick] knew. It seemed as if his science and art were ledgered in his brain, so that he could turn on the instant to page and line.”

   “[T]he only thing that can cause delay is the calling for explanations at the end of the year, and this can be avoided if you ledger for each registering post or group the figures of each month as received, and in making progressive totals compare them each month with the totals of former years, which can be entered at the head of the ledger. The labour of ledgering is but small, and it enables you to keep your eye on the progress of trade all through the year, […]”

   “[In the play Angels in America] [Tony] Kushner is less interested in objectifying or ledgering the specific sufferings AIDS causes than in how it collates and coalesces those aspects of our suffering that are general and ordinary.”

   “They were not looking for their reckoning but totally rejected Our revelations. Everything We had ledgered in a book.”

2. (transitive)To use (a certain type of bait) in bottom fishing.

   “The added advantage of legering a small bait rather than freelining one is that you can tighten up harder to the bait and so spot runs earlier.”

   “The flounder spends its life between the tideline and the 25 to 30 fathoms mark, but they are often caught several miles upstream in freshwater rivers by anglers legering worms or gentles.”

3. (intransitive)To engage in bottom fishing.

   “In the fashion pursued by the fishermen who require to cast a long line on the Thames, for ledgering or spinning more particularly, the line is drawn off the reel and laid loosely in coils at the fisherman's feet, […]”

   “The best baits for ledgering are, firstly, worms; secondly, greaves; and, thirdly, a bunch of gentles, though some people occasionally catch barbel with raw beef or ham; […]”

   “[T]he salmon were playing hard to get. So were the trout. So, come to that, were any fresh water shrimps that might be around. Obviously the recommended bunch of worms on a large hook ledgered to the bottom was an insufficient inducement.”

name

1. A surname.