> as lemmas

1841 T. Hood Miss Kilmansegg iv, in New Monthly Mag. 61 267 Of ‘making a book’ how he made a stir.

1856 ‘Stonehenge’ Man. Brit. Rural Sports ii. i. xiii. §137 It does not always happen that the person laying the odds makes a book.

1892 Cassell's Sat. Jrnl. 28 May 859/1 There certainly is a way of ‘making a book’ by which the layer of odds must win.

1962 New Statesman 21 Dec. 897/2 If I was making a book on the chances of my being banged to rights, you or any other punter could have 100 to eight to any amount.

1987 Racing Ahead Mar. 20/2 Alex first went racing at Uttoxeter in 1929, and later, made a book in his father's name at Belle Vue, Manchester, greyhound track.

1949 W. R. Burnett Asphalt Jungle 63 Gus knew hundreds of men, but there were only three he'd make book on.

1966 Random House Dict. Eng. Lang. 169/3 You can make book on it that he won't arrive in time.

1978 Free Press (Detroit) 16 Apr. e8/3 Once a gobbler is roosting and you've located him, you practically make book on him still being there, in the same tree, come dawn.

1992 Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Jrnl. 23 July a1/5 And Baker himself Wednesday disputed the reports that he would step down to help Bush's re-election campaign. ‘I wouldn't make book on it’ until it came from the president, Baker said at a news conference.