book end

British

noun

one of a pair of usually ornamental supports for holding a row of books upright

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

But the letter went on to muse about whether it might be better for Henley and Frey just to “send each other these bitter pages and let the book end on a slightly gentler note?”

From Seattle Times • Feb. 28, 2024

The ceremony felt in many ways like a book end to the so-called Peak TV era itself.

From New York Times • Jan. 16, 2024

Some of the modest details in the book end up having larger consequences.

From Washington Post • Jan. 15, 2020

Some future historian will have to grapple with the reasonable temptation to have the book end in the fall of 2014.

From The New Yorker • Nov. 7, 2014

Who was to draw great and successful authors to the book end of the house?

From The "Genius" by Dreiser, Theodore

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023