ledger

1. A book or other scheme for keeping accounting records.Examples: "To be clear: there's only one ledger, but that ledger is not stored in any one central location. Rather, identical copies exist on every node—a copy on every computer."

2. (accounting) A collection of accounting entries consisting of credits and debits.Examples: "The Leger exhibits at one view the accounts with an individual, as it contains on the Dr. [debit] side whatever he has received, and on the Cr. [credit] side whatever he has paid. […] Let each account be posted from the Day Book in its proper place in the Leger. If a mistake be made, let it be corrected by an account in the Day Book, clearly stating the correction, and then let this account be posted in its proper place in the Leger, that no blot or erasure may disfigure its pages."; "He keeps a ledger or a debtor-and-creditor account between the Government and the Country, posts so much actual crime, corruption, and injustice against so much contingent advantage or sluggish prejudice, and at the bottom of the page brings in the balance of indignation and contempt, where it is due."

3. (construction) A board attached to a wall to provide support for attaching other structural elements (such as deck joists or roof rafters) to a building.Examples: "[The dome was] turned upon a centre laid without any standard from below to support it. Every story of the scaffolding being circular, and the ends of the ledgers meeting as so many rings, and truly wrought, it supported itself; […]"; "For more secure rooftop decks, a ledger (a joist mounted against the side of the house to support one side of a deck) is attached to the face of the house with perpendicular sleepers (wood planks laid horizontally at wide intervals) aligned with the roof rafters below."Synonyms: ligger

4. (fishing) Ellipsis of ledger bait (“fishing bait attached to a floating line fastened to the bank of a pond, stream, etc.”) or ledger line (“fishing line used with ledger bait for bottom fishing; ligger”).Examples: "[W]hen fishing for Eels with a ledger line as well as a floated line, don't be in too much haste to strike when you see a bite, for Eels generally gorge the bait, and consequently hook themselves, if you give them time, […] I always use two hooks on my ledger, placing the top one about two feet above the bottom, and to prevent it from moving from its proper place, fix a shot above it and below it, […]"; "Stream fishing is, as I have said, subdivided into fishing with a travelling or tripping bait, with or without a float, and also with a stationary one, with or without float. The first of these latter is termed "tight corking," and the latter ledgering or ledger fishing. […] If the angler likes it better, a combination of ledger and float can be made, which is the acmè of tight corking and one of the most killing methods employed. It is simply to use a light ledger lead instead of fixed shots."abbreviationalt-ofellipsis