jats:titleAbstract</jats:title> jats:pIn this paper we consider a much-quoted phrase published by the essayist Charles Lamb (1775–1834) in the jats:italicLondon Magazine</jats:italic> in 1822 about a desirable quality in books: that they should be ‘strong-backed and neat-bound’. We identify meanings of modifier jats:italicneat</jats:italic> as evidenced by different communities of practice in early nineteenth-century newspapers, and in particular we present meanings of jats:italicneat</jats:italic> as used in certain Quaker writings known to have been read with approval by Lamb. By this method we assemble a series of nuanced meanings that the phrase jats:italicneat-bound</jats:italic> would have conveyed to contemporary readers – specifically, the readership of the jats:italicLondon Magazine</jats:italic>.</jats:p>