English
Etymology
Verb
en-verb|inf=to cook the books|cooks the books|cooking the books|cooked the books
- idiom To manipulate accounting information, esp. illegally, by a corporation
#: w:Enron|Enron Corp., once a major U.S. corporation, is now famous for cooking the books.
Usage notes
To cook the books is to falsify an account of an event, often a financial one. At first sight this may seem a strange combination, but it started its life in the mid-17th century, and thus it has endured. It is a metaphor for the act of cooking, whereby ingredients are changed, altered and improved by the process. Thus financial statements can also be so modified to the benefit of the 'cook'. Such a change, in a negative way, is also seen in the expression to 'cook someone's goose', thereby depriving the owner of the benefit of the animal, either alive or dead.
Related terms
creative accounting
white-collar crime
References
Origin of English Sayings
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