Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use bookend in a sentence

11 example sentences · noun, verb

Bookend means a heavy object or moveable support placed at one or both ends of a row of books for the purpose of keeping them upright. Example: “And it seemed, perhaps fancifully, that those two moments had become the bookends of a generation and of a nation’s frayed sense of equilibrium.”

Examples of bookend by meaning

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

  • And it seemed, perhaps fancifully, that those two moments had become the bookends of a generation and of a nation’s frayed sense of equilibrium.2022 September 19, Alan Cowell, “From Coronation to Funeral: Bookends to the Life of a Queen, and a Generation”, in The New York Times...
  • In the factory, a colourful woodland of knitted trees points towards a collection of bookends commissioned from Scottish designers and inspired by the globetrotting travels in 1894 of Dundee Courier journalists Marie Imandt and Bessie Maxwell.2024 September 21, Eve Livingston, “‘Students want to stay here now rather than disappear to London’: how design transformed the city of...

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

  • Side one has good songs bookended by better songs.2006, Henry Owings, Patton Oswalt, The Overrated Book, →ISBN, page 105
  • The tale is bookended by battles – faces meatily pummelled, bones crunchily broken and throats spurtingly sliced as offstage conflicts are placed centre-screen.2015 October 4, Mark Kermode, “Macbeth review – a spittle-flecked Shakespearean war film”, in The Observer
  • 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.2016 July 28, Peter Bradshaw, “Barry Lyndon review – Kubrick's intimate epic of utter lucidity”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

More sentences with bookend

  • Maybe Lucas decided to consistify it all by removing the bookends from what eps had 'em.2007 November 15, jayembee, “Re: YOUNG INDIANA JONES/"Old Indy" Question”, in rec.arts.movies.past-films (Usenet). From the entry consistify
  • These bookends house a wealth of apocalyptic stories.2010, Philip Leroy Culbertson, Elaine Mary Wainwright, Bible in Popular Culture, page 184. From the entry apocalyptic
  • BOOKENDS: Will the Real Jonathan Safran Foer Please Stand Up?2005 April 13, Leon Neyfakh, Harvard Crimson. From the entry will the real someone please stand up
  • The letters represent overlapping futuristic philosophies — bookended by transhumanism and longtermism — favoured by many of AI’s wealthiest and most prominent supporters.2023 May 10, Anjana Ahuja, “We need to examine the beliefs of today’s tech luminaries”, in Financial Times. From the entry TESCREAL
  • If memory serves, the bookends were done for the ABC episodes, but were missing from the few 2-hour movies that aired on The Family Channel.2007 November 15, jayembee, “Re: YOUNG INDIANA JONES/"Old Indy" Question”, in rec.arts.movies.past-films (Usenet). From the entry consistify
  • “And you and God the Father on either side of them?” “Like bookends.” “You are aware that Muhammad Ali is a Muslim?” “Yea, the Muslimest.” “Well, how about Frank Sinatra?2011, John Richards, Jesus is Alive and Appearing Everywhere But Camden, page 185. From the entry Muslimest

Meaning of bookend

  1. noun 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. noun Something that comes before, after, or at both sides of something else.
  3. verb To come before and after, or at both sides of.

Full definition of bookend

Questions about bookend in a sentence

How do you use bookend in a sentence?
Bookend is used as a noun and verb. For example: “And it seemed, perhaps fancifully, that those two moments had become the bookends of a generation and of a nation’s frayed sense of equilibrium.”
What is a short sentence with bookend?
“These bookends house a wealth of apocalyptic stories.”
What does bookend mean?
Bookend means a heavy object or moveable support placed at one or both ends of a row of books for the purpose of keeping them upright.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bookend (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use bookend in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/bookend. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.