bookend

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   A heavy object or moveable support placed at one or both ends of a row of books for the…

   A heavy object or moveable support placed at one or both ends of a row of books for the purpose of keeping them upright.

2. 2

   Something that comes before, after, or at both sides of something else.

   • The cabinet minister's appearance served as something of a bookend to her grilling by the Home Affairs select committee in April this year[…]
   • In both Episode 1 and Episode 9, which serve as bookends, Burns found fascinating footage of a 1938 event at which President Franklin Roosevelt spoke to living veterans who wore the Blue and the Gray; […]
   • […] radio techniques, including the use of sound montage and the placement of musical "bookends" at the beginning and end of radio programs […]
3. 3

   To come before and after, or at both sides of.

   • Side one has good songs bookended by better songs.
   • The tale is bookended by battles – faces meatily pummelled, bones crunchily broken and throats spurtingly sliced as offstage conflicts are placed centre-screen.
   • Taking the 18th-century tale at a steady, relentless drumbeat, and with a seductively cool detachment, Kubrick guides you through his hero’s rise and fall, bookended by two sensational duelling scenes.

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