off-the-book

[dilermando]

Hello,

In the sentence below, what do 'strung out' and 'collar' mean?

Guy #1: It's going to require some off-the-clock and off-the-books work. Can you handle it?
Guy #2: You gotta ask? I'll lose some sleep and some overtime to be a part of that collar.

Thanks in advance

[RonBee]

A collar is an arrest. Something done off the books is not recorded anywhere.

If you do work that is off the books you might have to get paid under the table.

[BobK]

A collar is an arrest...

Interesting derivation - started as a noun (meaning part of a garment that goes round the neck) -> the (now almost extinct) idiom "feel someone's collar", meaning to make an arrest -> then the idiom was shortened to a one-word verb ("to collar someone") -> and finally, back to a noun (very well-disguised http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synechdoche ).

b