[…] they have neither the responsibility nor the inclination to cover the real news of the community and consequently have little editorial expense, relying on handouts and cheap boilerplate materials to fill up the spots where they have no ads.1966, Editor & Publisher, volume 99, page 46:
5
Standard text of a legal or official nature added to documents or labels.
They put that boilerplate on all the warning labels.
6
Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences A standard piece of program code used routinely and added with a text editor or word processor.
7
Formulaic or hackneyed language.
8
Hobbies, Lifestyle, Skiing, Sports Hard, icy snow which may be dangerous for skiing.
boilerplate
adj
Etymology From boiler + plate. First use appears c. 1793 in the periodical Star.
1
Describing text or other material of a standard or routine nature.
The contract contained all the usual boilerplate clauses.
It’s an oldie, but not a goodie: one of those boilerplate kids’ movie plots about a workaholic adult who needs a serious jolt to their inner child, complete with a buck-passing, golf-playing idiot boss (Mark Gatiss) and a big presentation that’s due tomorrow.2018 August 2, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, “Disney goes back to the Hundred Acre Wood in the wistful Christopher Robin”, in AV Club, archived from the original on 03 Aug 2018:
1 more example
Devoid of even boilerplate language offering support for Israel and its defense, the statement made clear: this would be Israel’s conflict, not Trump’s.2025 June 12, Kevin Liptak, “Trump didn’t want Israel to strike. They did it anyway.”, in CNN.com:
2
Aeronautics, Aerospace, Business, Engineering, Natural sciences, Physical sciences Used to refer to a non-functional spacecraft used to test configuration and procedures.
A boilerplate spacecraft was used to test the rocket.
boilerplate
verb
Etymology From boiler + plate. First use appears c. 1793 in the periodical Star.
1
To store standard text so that it can easily be retrieved for reuse.
Any text that you have reason to use more than once can be boilerplated by simply tucking it away in a file (on disk) […]1986, Personal Computing, volume 10, page 72:
Boilerplated sections should be examined for updating each time they are used.1989, Ron Tepper, How to Write Winning Proposals for Your Company Or Client, page 236: