What does "bookend" mean?

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

What is a synonym for "bookend"?

Common synonyms include: book support, flank, flank.

noun, verb

noun, verb ·2 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
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
a support placed at the end of a row of books to keep them upright (on a shelf or table) wordnet
3
Something that comes before, after, or at both sides of something else. figuratively
"The cabinet minister's appearance served as something of a bookend to her grilling by the Home Affairs select committee in April this year[…]"

Verb

1
To come before and after, or at both sides of. figuratively, often, transitive
"Side one has good songs bookended by better songs."

"The cabinet minister's appearance served as something of a bookend to her grilling by the Home Affairs select committee in April this year[…]"

From book + end.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.