booking

Pluralbookings

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A reservation made in advance for a service such as travel or hotel accommodation.

   The travel agent confirmed our booking for the morning train.

   All bookings must be canceled at least 24 hours in advance.

   Similarreservation

   Note

   Most at home in the plural and in the phrase advance booking, the everyday language of rail operators and hotels announcing what can be reserved ahead. As a count noun it is one reservation (our booking for the morning train). Used without an article, it can name the whole system of reserving rather than any single place held.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   An engagement of a performer for a particular performance or event.

   The band's agent arranged a booking at the summer festival.

   She lost the booking when the venue closed without warning.

   Similarengagement, gig

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The police procedure, after an arrest, of photographing and fingerprinting a suspect and recording their identifying details.

   Booking took place at the county jail within hours of the arrest.

   During booking, officers recorded his fingerprints and personal details.

   Similarprocessing

   Note

   Here the book is the official record, and the arrested suspect is written into it, a close cousin of the bookkeeping sense. It works as a mass noun for a stage of custody (during booking, after booking) and as a countable noun for a single instance (each booking). Context separates it from the reservation meaning: a booking at the jail and a booking at a hotel share only the paperwork.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   In soccer, the issuing of a formal caution to a player, recorded by the referee and signaled with a yellow card; two in a match bring a red card and a send-off.

   The referee's booking in the first half forced the team to play cautiously.

   Two bookings in one game and you're sent off.

   Similarcaution

   Note

   The name is literal: the referee writes the offending player's name down, so a caution is a booking and the cautioned player has been booked. Because a second one means dismissal, a booking changes how a player can afford to tackle for the rest of the match. A player picks up or receives a booking, while the referee gives or issues one.

5. 5
   noununcountable

   The act of recording something in a book or set of books, as in accounting.

   Accurate booking of expenses is essential for clear accounts.

   The booking of the invoice was delayed until the end of the month.

   Similarrecording, entry, posting

   Note

   Here the book is still a real one: the ledger or account where a figure is entered and becomes part of the record. Like most -ing nouns, it works both as a mass noun for the activity (careful booking of expenses) and as a count noun for a single entry. The idea of a written entry also runs through the referee's caution, which is noted down in a book.

6. 6
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of book.

   He is booking flights for the whole team this afternoon.

   Booking early often saves a lot of money.

   Note

   The -ing form does double duty. In he is booking flights it is a verb in progress; in booking early saves money it is a gerund, a verb acting as a noun. That gerund shades easily into the noun for a reservation. The test is whether it still takes an object or an adverb, as a verb does. The same form also carries the verb's slang, intransitive meaning of traveling very fast.

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