Definition of "leger"

Sir Edward Carne, the queen's leger at Rome

1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […]

The Leger exhibits at one view the accounts with an individual, as it contains on the Dr. [debt] 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.

1822, Nicolas Pike, Chester Dewey, “Book Keeping”, in A New and Complete System of Arithmetick. Composed for the Use of Citizens of the United States, 4th edition, Troy, N.Y.: Printed and published by W[illia]m S. Parker, […], page 490

[T]his city of "merchants, whose counting-houses are their churches, whose money is their God, and whose legers, (defaced legers, of course, the delegate from Indiana will understand me,) whose legers are their bibles."

1837 December 20, Thomas P. Cope, Speech of Thomas P. Cope of Philadelphia, on Banks and Currency. […], [Philadelphia, Pa.]: Printed at No. 46 Carpenter Street, published 1838, page 9

The original charges, however, are made in what is called a day book, where they are written one after another, in the order in which the transactions occur. During the hours of leisure, these charges are copied into another book, […] the account of each man being placed under his name. This book is called the leger. The act of copying from the day book into the leger is called posting.

1843, George Leonard, Jr., “Book-keeping. ”, in A Practical Treatise on Arithmetic, page 311

Night-lines are made of water-cord, with the hooks about half-a-yard apart, baited with worms, loach, gudgeons, &c.; a brick is fastened to each end of the line to sink it, or a peg at one end and a brick at the other, and laid obliquely across the stream. They are also often taken when Legering for Barbel, […]

1864, “Otter” [pseudonym; H. Jervis Alfred], “Eel, Lamprey and Lampern”, in The Modern Angler, Containing Instructions in the Art of Fly-fishing, Spining and Bottom-fishing, […], London: Alfred & Son, […], part I, page 68

Messrs. E. Frost and Tomkins, at Monkey Island, in two days, caught 80 lbs. weight of chub, dace, and roach with the fly and cheese paste, and in legering a trout of 2¼ lbs.

1878, “The Fishing Season”, in Once a Week, volume VIII (Fourth Series), London: Published at the offices, 19, Tavistock Street, W.C., page 95, column 1

The added advantage of legering a small bait rather than freelining one is that you can tighten up harder to the bait and so spot runs earlier.

1997, Paul Gustafson, “Rigs”, in How to Catch Bigger Pike from Rivers, Lochs and Lakes, London: Collins Willow, HarperCollins Publishers; republished as How to Catch Big Pike: All the Insight and Technique You Need to Catch Bigger Pike, whatever the Location, London: Robinson, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group, 2016, page 160

The flounder spends its life between the tideline and the 25 to 30 fathoms mark, but they are often caught several miles upstream in freshwater rivers by anglers legering worms or gentles.

1998, Martin James, “Flounder”, in Paul Morgan, editor, Saltwater Flyfishing: Britain and Northern Europe, Machynlleth, Powys: Coch-y-Bonddu Books, published 2006, page 156