> as lemmas

1618 T. Adams Happines of Church 90 By this Booke I thinke he meanes Gods fauour: as we vsually say, to be in a mans fauour, is to be in his bookes.

1676 Modest Acct. Wicked Life Lodowick Muggleton A little before Oliver's Death, Muggleton, by continual Flatteries, had got into his Books.

1839 C. Dickens Nicholas Nickleby xxxi. 304 If you want to keep in the good books in that quarter, you had better not call her the old lady.

1894 Argosy Jan. 40 He wished to coax his mother, and be in her good books.

1938 J. Masefield Dead Ned 284 You'd ought to be careful with the judy. It's best to keep in her good books.

1957 Times of India 1 Oct. 6/3 I had to work my way into the good books of an elder brother was a ‘working man’ and therefore rich, beyond my dreams of avarice.

1980 M. Frayn Make & Break i, in Plays: One (1985) 290 If you want to get in his good books, talk to him about spaniels... His wife breeds them.

2005 T. Hall Salaam Brick Lane 262 Since defying her wishes and agreeing to allow Razia to go up to Cambridge, he was not exactly in her good books.