Idiom
Cook the books
To cook the books is to change financial records dishonestly, usually to hide losses, take money or make a business look healthier than it is.
How people use it
People use it about companies, clubs or individuals who fake accounts, tax records or sales numbers (the treasurer had been cooking the books for years). It is informal but appears often in news reports about fraud. It always suggests deliberate dishonesty, not an honest error. Books here means account books, the records of money coming in and going out. A related term, creative accounting, can describe tricks that are misleading but not always illegal.
Examples
- The auditors discovered that the manager had cooked the books to hide a huge loss.
- Ana refused to cook the books, even when her boss asked her to change the sales figures.
- The club treasurer was caught cooking the books to pay for a new car.
Where it comes from
'Cook' has been used to mean alter, fake or tamper with something since at least the 1600s, the idea being that you take raw facts and prepare them to suit your taste. Account books were an obvious target. Cooked accounts were mentioned long ago, and the catchy phrase cook the books grew common in the 1900s.
Check yourself
1. What does it mean if an accountant cooks the books?
Answer: She falsifies the financial records. Cook the books means dishonestly changing financial records. It has nothing to do with food.
2. Which sentence uses the idiom correctly?
Answer: The owner cooked the books so the shop would look profitable to buyers.. Faking records to look profitable is cooking the books. Careful checking is the opposite, and the rice sentence is a silly literal reading.
Similar idioms
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