"cooking the books"，書可以拿來煮?

閱讀Reader's Digest March, 2006
看到這個句子：
For when cooking the books didn't work well enough.   
"cooking the books"，書可以拿來煮?

原來如此：
cook the books:
to dishonestly change official records and figures in order to steal the money or give people false information.

(Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English)

至於食譜的說法為
BrE  cookery book
AmE  cook book 

因此學字彙，不能光看表面的意思，必須深究才行！