▪ I. ledger, n. and a.
(ˈlɛdʒə(r))
Forms: (5 legerd), 5–9 legger, 6 ledgar, leadger, lydger, -ear, ligear, -ier, legior, 6–7 lidger, liger, legier, 6–8 lieger, leager, 6–9 leger, leiger, 7 leidger, liedger, leeger, legar, lyger, leig-, lieg-, leag-, lidgier, ligyor, legyor, 6– ledger.
[The senses represent Du. ligger and legger, f. liggen, leggen, lie, lay vbs. The Eng. forms lidger, ledger, cannot be direct adoptions of the Du. words, but may be formations on Eng. liggen, leggen, dial. forms of lie, lay vbs. + -er1, in imitation of these.]
A. n.
1. A book that lies permanently in some place. † a. gen. Obs.
| 1538 Wriothesley Chron. (1875) I. 85 The curates should provide a booke of the bible in Englishe, of the largest volume, to be a lidger in the same church for the parishioners to read on. |
† b. spec. A large copy of the Breviary.
Obs.| 1401 in Wylie Hen. IV, IV. 198 [Items of expenditure] 19 portos, 3 liggers. 1444 in Dugdale's Mon. VI. 1427 Duo portiphoria..alias nuncupata lyggers. 1481 Churchw. Acc. Yatton (Som. Rec. Soc.) 112 To John Brene writer on part of payment for the legger the x day of June..{pstlg}iij. vjs viii{supd}. 1484 Ibid. 115 Payd to the Scryvener for the legerd..xxjs. 1496 Will of Howneslowe (Somerset Ho.), Portiferium alias vocat Legger. 1530 Abp. Warham in Wills Doctors' Comm. (Camden) 23 Omnes libros meos vocatos ledgers, grayles, et antiphonaria. 1691 Wood Ath. Oxon. I. 572 The said Archb. [Warham] left all his..Ledgers, Grayles and Antiphonals to Wykeham Coll. |
† c. A record-book; a register.
Obs.| 1550 Acts Privy Council (1891) III. 3 To..enter..all such decrees, determinacions, and other thinges..in a booke, to remaigne alwaies as a leger. 1553 S. Cabot Ordinances in Hakluyt Voy. (1589) 259 To put the same into a common leger to remain of record for the companie. 1605–47 Habington Surv. Worcs. in Proc. Worc. Hist. Soc. I. 33, I was suffered by a speciall frynd to see the Legers of the Church of Worcester. 1625 Gill Sacr. Philos. viii. 136 Some Liger, or booke of record, wherein such memorable things were written..as might serue for remembrance to future ages. 1666 Wood Life 25 June, Perused the evidences of Queen's Coll., and afterwards a leiger, or transcript of all the evidences. |
d. Comm. The principal book of the ‘set of books’ ordinarily employed for recording mercantile transactions.
Its distinctive feature is that its contents consist of ‘debtor-and-creditor accounts’. Usually each person (or firm) with whom the trader has business relations has an account in the ledger, headed with his name, and showing the sums charged to his debit on the left page or half-page, and on the right those credited to him. In the system of ‘double entry’ the ledger includes other accounts of similar form to these, but headed with the designations of certain branches or subdivisions of the trader's own business.
| 1588 J. Mellis Briefe Instruct. C iv b, After you haue thus sette euery parcell orderly in your Iournal, then it behoueth you to take out the said parcelles, and compile and indite them into the third booke, called the Leager, which commonly is made of double so many leaues as is the Iournall. 1662–3 Pepys Diary 7 Jan., So to my office all the morning, signing the Treasurer's ledger. 1679 R. Chamberlain Accomptant's Guide Pref., At the end of the Leager there is a ballance of the Leager. 1745 De Foe's Eng. Tradesman (1841) II. xxxii. 43 It is usual to mark the ledgers alphabetically thus—Ledger No. A. 1783 Burke Rep. Affairs Ind. Wks. XI. 291 The journals and legers of the Treasury. 1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. xvi, He had a thick ledger lying open before him. 1873 Hamerton Intell. Life x. viii. (1875) 379 The mind is like a merchant's ledger, it requires to be continually posted up to the latest date. |
| fig. 1809–10 Coleridge Friend (1818) III. 315 An improved system of book-keeping for the ledgers of calculating self-love. |
2. a. A horizontal timber in a scaffolding, lying parallel to the face of the building and supporting the putlogs. (
Cf. ligger.)
| 1571 Stanford Churchw. Acc. in Antiquary XVII. 170/1 It. for iiij⊇ prays & a hundreth lydgers xijd. 1703 T. N. City & C. Purchaser 231 In Building of Scaffolds..the Ledgers..are those pieces that lie Parallel to the side of the Building. 1703 Moxon Mech. Exerc. 251 Timber, or short Poles..from the Leggers into their Brickwork. 1823 P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 303 A frame of wood, braced with strong pieces of timber, and secured by ledgers and feet. 1883 Law Times Rep. XLIX. 139/1 The scaffolding was constructed of five..uprights and one ledger, this ledger being only two boards wide instead of five. |
b. In Thatching, a wooden rod laid across the thatch to hold it in place.
Cf. legget.
| 1916 C. F. Innocent Devel. Eng. Building Construction xiii. 196 After the ‘yelms’ are laid, a ledger, that is, a pointed stick, is thrust into the straw, the length of it being carried across three or four ‘yelms’ and tied to the rafters at the opposite end. Ibid. 198 This method of securing thatch by rods laid across it is..that most generally used in England. The rods, or ‘ledgers,’ may be either tied or ‘sewn’ to the rafters, or they may be held down by ‘broaches’. 1949 H. L. Edlin Woodland Crafts in Brit. xi. 67 In most parts of Britain thatching materials are secured to the roofs of thatched houses or stacks by narrow pegs of wood, usually hazel. One common name for these is spars, but they have many others... Withynecks, ledgers and roovers have all been recorded. 1959 G. Hogg Country Crafts 123 The ‘diamond’ pattern which a thatcher produces by laying strips of cleft hazel or other thin wood, which he refers to as ‘ledgers’, criss-cross along the roof a little below the ridge on each side. |
3. A flat stone slab covering a grave.
| c 1510 Contr. for tomb Hen. VII, in Britton Arch. Antiq. (1809) II. 21, 100 foote of blacke towchestone is sufficient for the legger and the base of the said tombe. 1852 J. L. Chester Westm. Abbey Reg. (1876) 514 note, Buried in the North Cloister of Westminster Abbey, under a black marble ledger, close to the North wall. 1883 C. Kerry St. Lawrence, Reading 136 The old ledger on which Barton's brass was laid. 1890 Archæol. Jrnl. XLVII. 100 A ledger in the chancel at Burton commemorates Sir William Goring. |
4. The nether millstone. Now
dial.| a 1530 Heywood Play Weather (Brandl) 743 Fere not the lydger, be ware your ronner..Perchaunce your lydger doth lache good peckyng. 1686 Plot Staffordsh. 170 The Mole⁓cop-stone being always the runner, and the Darbyshire stone, the Legier. 1825 J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 451 The bed of masonry which supports the legger. |
5. Angling. Short for
ledger-bait (see 8).
| 1653 Walton Angler vii. 149 You may fish for a Pike, either with a ledger, or a walking-bait; and you are to note that I call that a ledger which is fix'd, or made to rest in one certaine place when you shall be absent. 1859 S. C. Hall Bk. Thames 278 The usual practice is to fish for barbel with the ledger. 1882 Daily Tel. 28 Oct. 2/4 The only chance is to fish with a leger on the submerged banks in the eddies for roach. |
6. An ordinary or resident ambassador; also, a papal nuncio.
Obs. exc. Hist. in form
lieger.
| 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VIII (1809) 724 The Viscount Rochforth retorned into England & so did the Bishop of Bathe shortly after leavyng Sir Anthony Broune behind for a Ligier. 1563–87 Foxe A. & M. (1596) 260/1 The realme was neuer lightlie without some of the popes ligiers with all violence exacting and extorting continuall provisions, contributions, [etc.]. 1577–87 Holinshed Chron. III. 896/2 The bishop of Bath..laie there for the king as legier. 1599 Hakluyt Voy. II. 165 William Harborne was sent first Ambassadour unto Sultan Murad Can—with whom he continued as her Majesties Ligier almost sixe yeeres. 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. xxiii. §20 A Nuntio of the pope, returning from a certayne Nation, where hee serued as Lidger. 1630 M. Godwyn tr. Bp. Hereford's Ann. Eng. (1675) 39 Prat, Leiger here for the Emperour,..without leave withdrew himself from court. a 1639 Spottiswood Hist. Ch. Scot. vi. (1655) 351 By a letter sent from Mr. Archibald Douglas that stayed as Lieger in England, he found him not well disposed in the businesse. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. iii. v. §22 A Nuncio differed from a Legate, almost as a Lieger from an extraordinary Ambassadour. 1855 Costello Stor. Screen 3, I was then—as I am now—the lieger of the house of Nidau. |
7. transf. and
fig. a. A (permanent) representative; a commissioner; an agent; also, an ‘ambassador of the Gospel’.
Obs. or
arch. in form
lieger.
| 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. iii. i. 59 Lord Angelo hauing affaires to heauen Intends you for his swift Ambassador, Where you shall be an euerlasting Leiger. 1607 Dekker Knts. Conjur. (1842) 34 The poxe lyes there as deaths legyer. 1611 W. Barksted Hiren (1876) 87 But sighes he sends out on this embassie, Liegers that dye ere they returne againe. 1619 Hutton Follie's Anat. A 7 He..like a ledger at the Tables end Takes place for an inuited friend. 1627–77 Feltham Resolves i. xii. 19 Every good man is a Leiger here for Heaven. 1651 Jer. Taylor Clerus Dom. 20 God sent at first Embassadours extraordinary and then left his Leigers in his Church for ever. 1664 Butler Hud. ii. iii. 140 Has not this present Parliament A Ledger to the Devil sent, Fully empowr'd to treat about Finding revolted Witches out? 1671 J. Flavel Fount of Life viii. 23 The Mediator that made it, lies as a Lidger in heaven to maintain it for ever and prevent new Jars. 1791 Cowper Iliad xxiv. 171 Mark me,—I come, a lieger sent from Jove [Gr. Διὸς δέ τοι ἄγγελος εἶµι]. |
† b. One who is permanently or constantly in a place; a resident.
Obs.| 1599 B. Jonson Ev. Man out of Hum. iv. iv, Hee's a lieger at Horne's ordinarie yonder. 1611 Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. vii. xiv. (1623) 416 King Ethelred thus rid of these his vnlooked for guests, sought to remoue those leigers that lay in Cumberland. 1612 Bp. Hall Serm. v. 63 All Palestine..was but, as Jerome which was a lieger there reckons it, 160 miles long. 1650 Fuller Pisgah 428 Seeing it is said of Anna..that she departed not from the Temple, it will be enquired whether any women were constantly Leigers to live therein. a 1661 ― Worthies (1662) i. 4 Of these wonders, some were transient,.. others Liegers and Permanent. |
† c. Welsh ledger: ? ‘a jocular name for the cuckoo’ (Nares).
Obs.| 1607 Middleton Five Gallants v. i, Your deuice here is a Cuckow sitting on a tree, the Welsh Lidger; good. |
8. attrib. and
Comb., as (sense 1 d)
ledger-account,
ledger-clerk,
ledger-entry,
ledger-keeper,
ledger-man,
ledger-scroll,
ledger-work; also
ledger-like adj.;
ledger-bait, a fishing bait which is made to remain in one place (also
attrib.); so
ledger-hook,
ledger-line,
ledger-tackle;
ledger-blade, in a cloth-shearing machine, the stationary straight-edged blade, placed as a tangent to and co-acting with a spiral blade on a cylinder, and used to trim the nap and reduce it to a uniform length;
ledger-millstone = sense 4;
ledger-pole = sense 2;
ledger-stone = sense 3;
ledger-wall = foot-wall.
| 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Book, The *ledger account of cash. 1902 G. H. Lorimer Lett. Merchant vi. 77 Some one who keeps separate ledger accounts for work and for fun. 1903 Daily Chron. 5 Jan. 5/5 It would be a bad day for loyalty when people considered loyalty as an item in the ledger account. |
| 1653 Walton Angler vii. 149 Your *ledger bait is best to be a living bait. 1740 R. Brookes Art of Angling i. ii. 8 Ledger-Bait Angling is when the Bait always rests in one fixt and certain Place. |
| 1839 Ure Dict. Arts, etc. 1323 The..fixed..or..*ledger blade. |
| 1887 Times 10 Oct. 3/3 The prisoner, who was employed as a *ledger clerk and accountant. |
| 1682 J. Scarlett Exchanges 37 A formal Journal, or *leidger Entry. 1849 Freese Comm. Class-bk. 97 Forms of Ledger-Entries. |
| 1653 Walton Angler vii. 153 Having given you this direction for the baiting your *ledger hook with a live fish or frog. |
| 1906 Daily Chron. 18 Sept. 3/5 A female *ledger⁓keeper and accountant in one office worked for 6s. a week. |
| 1846 Hawthorne Mosses ii. iii. (1864) 62 A folio volume of *leger-like size and aspect. |
| 1882 Ogilvie, *Ledger-line,..a kind of tackle used in fishing for barbel and bream. 1883 Fisheries Exhib. Catal. 56 Spoon Baits, Paternosters, Ledger Lines. |
| 1820 Keats Isabella xviii, How was it these same *ledger-men could spy Fair Isabella in her downy nest? |
| 1548 Udall Erasm. Par. Luke xvii. 140 To be cast headlong into the sea with a great *lidger milstone tied about his necke. |
| 1901 J. Black Illustr. Carpenter & Builder Ser.: Scaffolding 86 A combination of chains, clips, and screw bolts, used for securing a *ledger-pole to standard. 1949 M. L. Darling At Freedom's Door i. v. 116 Till two or three years ago..Hindu Bhats from Rajputana would come every year with their long *ledger-scrolls to record in them any additions to the family. |
| 1851 E. Moore in Fen & Marshland Ch. Ser. iii. (1869) 65 Two stone coffins with the *ledger stones belonging to them. 1894 Jessopp Random Roaming 188 Certain rather handsome ledger stones that were lying in the chancel. |
| 1867 F. Francis Angling i. (1880) 51 There are many places..which..can only be fished with *ledger tackle. 1872 Echo 5 Aug., Heavy leger tackle. |
| 1881 Raymond Mining Gloss., *Ledger-wall. |
| 1908 Westm. Gaz. 24 Mar. 6/3 He came to Paris, learnt *ledger-work, and obtained a situation in a banking-house. |
B. adj. I. In attributive use.
† 1. ledger-ambassador or
ambassador ledger: resident or ordinary ambassador. So
ledger Jesuit.
Obs.| 1550 Edw. VI Jrnl. in Rem. (Roxb.) 258 That Sir John Mason shuld be embassadour ligier. 1577–87 Holinshed Chron. Hist. Scot. 344/2 Monsieur Doisell, liger ambassador for the French King. 1606 Proc. agst. Late Traitors 32 Baldwin the Ligier Jesuite in Flaunders. 1615 G. Sandys Trav. 85 The Kings of England and of France haue here their Ledger Embassadours. a 1670 Hacket Abp. Williams i. (1692) 120 The leiger Embassador of the Catholick King. 1755 Carte Hist. Eng. IV. 111 A duplicate of the order [was] sent to Sir Walter Aston, the lieger embassador. 1755 Johnson, Leger, any thing that lies in a place; as, a leger ambassador. |
| transf. and fig. a 1613 Overbury A Wife (1638) 286 Sleepe is Deaths Leiger-Ambassadour. 1639 Cade Serm. necess. for Times 10 Gods Lieger Ambassadour residing in our hearts. 1649 Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. Pref. §45 Christ having left his Ministers as Lieger Embassadours to signifie and publish the Lawes of Jesus. |
† 2. Remaining in a place; resident; permanent; stationary. Also
fig. constantly in use; said,
e.g. of a joke, ‘standing’, ‘stock’.
ledger side: the side on which something lies.
Obs.| 1547 Injunct. Edw. VI in Kitchin Winchester Docum. (1889) I. 184, iiij legior bybles to be hadde continually within the Churche. 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iv. xxi. 354 How mercifull is he to such who not out of leigier malice, but sudden passion, may chance to shed blood. 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. v. §146 This Petition, deliver'd publickly, and read..by their Leiger Committee. 1654 Gayton Pleas. Notes i. viii. 28 Like a bruised Codling Apple a little corrupted on the Leiger side. 1655 Fuller Hist. Camb. 156 Their habits, gestures, language, lieger-jests, and expressions. a 1661 ― Worthies, Kent (1662) ii. 59 The great Soveraign, built at Dulwich, [in later edd. corrected Woolwich] a Lieger-ship for State, is the greatest Ship our Island ever saw. 1662 Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. ii. iv. §8 God had a kind of Leiger-Prophets among his people. |
3. Mus. ledger line, one of the short lines added temporarily above and below the stave to accommodate notes in a passage which cannot be contained by the usual five lines. They are numbered from the stave upward and downward, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.
ledger lines above or
ledger lines below. Also
ledger space, a space between two ledger lines or between the stave and the 1st ledger line.
[The origin of this use is not clear;
perh. the word may be the
n. used
attrib. with allusion to sense A 2. The common statement that it represents the F.
léger light, slight, is baseless.]
| 1700 Playford Skill Mus. i. 6 And then you add a Line or two to the five Lines, as the Song requires, those Lines so added being called Ledger-Lines. 1775 Ash, Leg'erline,..a line above or below the five to receive an ascending or descending note. 1793 Trans. Soc. Arts V. 125 The ledger or occasional lines, drawn through the heads of the notes. 1818 Busby Gram. Mus. 20 The situation of G in the first ledger space, being higher than any within the stave, that note is called G in alt. 1879 C. J. Evans Let. in Musical Times 1 June, A ledger line has never been typographically either lighter in shade or thinner in substance than its accompanying stave lines. |
II. In predicative use,
esp. in
to be, lie ledger. (In many cases the word may be taken either as
n. or
adj.)
4. Resident in the capacity of ambassador, commissioner or agent.
Obs. exc. arch.| 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 113 His Ambassadour that was ledger at Rome. a 1635 Corbet Poems (1807) 121 He was Natures factour here, And legier lay for every sheire. 1642 W. Mountagu in Buccleuch MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.) I. 300 The Committee that are to lie leiger there. 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. ii. §24 Those who..lay leiger for the Covenant, and kept up the spirits of their countrymen by their intelligence. a 1670 Hacket Abp. Williams i. (1692) 29 One that lay lieger at London for their dispatches. 1826 [see leaguer n.1 4]. |
† 5. Lying or resting in a place, stationary; resident.
a. of persons.
| 1600 Fairfax Tasso i. lxx. 15 Returne not thou, but legier stay behinde. 1632 Chapman & Shirley Ball v. i, Two or three English spies told us they had lain leger three months to steal away the Piazza, and ship it for Covent Garden. 1638 R. West To Mem. T. Randolph 15 in R.'s Poems, For Humours to lye leidger they are seene. a 1656 Ussher Ann. vi. (1658) 434 Astymedes remained Lieger at Rome, that he might know what things were transacted. 1660 Milton Free Commw. Wks. 1851 V. 438 They meet not from so many parts remote to sit a whole year Lieger in one place, only now and then..to convey each Man his bean or ballot into the Box. |
b. of things.
Obs.| 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. 25 Wheate..yf the ground be to riche where it is sowen, it wyll growe to ranke, and lye leadge[r] vpon the grounde. 1611 Middleton & Dekker Roaring Girl iii. i. 91 A name which Ide teare out From the hye Germaines throat, if it lay ledger there To dispatch priuy slanders against mee. 1639 Fuller Holy War i. xx. (1640) 32 Shiloh, where the Ark was long leiger. 1650 ― Pisgah ii. xiv. 300 These wise men perceiving this..to be no light constantly Leiger in the skies, conclude it an extraordinary Embassadour sent upon some peculiar service. a 1661 ― Worthies, Lond. (1662) ii. 223 A rusty Musket, which had lien long Leger in his Shop. |
▪ II. ˈledger, v. Angling.
Also
leger.
[f. ledger n. (sense 5).] intr. To use a ledger-bait.
| 1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 324/2 Ledger is another way of fishing for a Pike, the Angler being absent. 1859 F. Francis N. Dogvane (1888) 19 An adept in spinning, trolling, ledgering. 1867 ― Angling ii. (1880) 63 The fishermen who require to cast a long line on the Thames, for ledgering or spinning. 1883 Fisheries Exhib. Catal. (ed. 4) 106 Jew Fish, caught by Messrs. Curtis and Senior, ledgering, Brisbane River, Queensland, Australia. |
Add: Hence
ˈledgered ppl. a., used as ledger-bait.
| 1959 Times 7 Feb. 9/4 Chub..can be caught with ledgered dead baits. 1976 Southern Even. Echo (Southampton) 1 Nov. 7/1 At Milford the other day I saw one angler reel in four good-sized dogfish within 45 minutes. They all took legered herring on double-hook gear. 1986 Coarse Fishing June 44/1 When I first began to fish the legered meat all those years ago, I realised very quickly that it was a method that could only win when the rivers were in flood. 1992 Angling Times 22 Apr. 7/3 There are plenty of..skimmers now being taken from pegs in the wides on legered maggot. |