bookend

Etymology

book +‎ end

Noun

bookend (plural bookends)

1. A heavy object or moveable support placed at one or both ends of a row of books for the purpose of keeping them upright.
2. (figuratively) Something that comes before, after, or at both sides of something else.
   • 2012, Kelly Fiveash, Snooper's-charter plans are just misunderstood, sniffles tearful May, on The Register

     The cabinet minister's appearance served as something of a bookend to her grilling by the Home Affairs select committee in April this year […]

Verb

bookend (third-person singular simple present bookends, present participle bookending, simple past and past participle bookended)

1. (transitive) To come before and after, or at both sides of.
   • 2006, Henry Owings & Patton Oswalt, The Overrated Book‎, →ISBN, page 105:

     Side one has good songs bookended by better songs.

   • 2015 October 4, Mark Kermode, “Macbeth review – a spittle-flecked Shakespearean war film”, in The Observer‎:

     The tale is bookended by battles – faces meatily pummelled, bones crunchily broken and throats spurtingly sliced as offstage conflicts are placed centre-screen.