textbook
adjEtymology From text + book.
1
Literally Of or pertaining to textbooks or their style, especially in being dry and pedagogical; textbooky, textbooklike.
- These figures are just too textbook, or papyrus-like, as if this information came off of a shelf in the Library of Alexandria2011, Thomas Karl Dietrich, The Culture of Astronomy: Origin of Number, Geometry, Science, Law, and Religion, page 347:
2
Figuratively Having the typical characteristics of some class of phenomenon, so that it might be included as an example in a textbook.
- textbook case
- Every night had been clear and star-studded, the progression of the moon through its phases absolutely textbook, its dance with the planets visible in the ecliptic...2003, Felice Picano, A house on the ocean, a house on the bay:
3 more examples
- Involuntarily it is practiced all the time, for instance when Shylock at the beginning of the trial describes himself as a very textbook example of a very bad and very common illness.2011, Inge Leimberg, 'What May Words Say ... ?': A Reading of the The Merchant of Venics, page 250:
- It's absolutely textbook! / The amount of trust Mia had in her future self was infinitesimal. Thus, she couldn't help but feel like there was something off about this name. / It's too textbook!2024, Nozomu Mochitsuki, Tearmoon Empire, volume 12, page 10:
- It seemed too textbook, too talk-showish, but it was true.2025, Sheena King, Submerged: On Healing from Abuse While Navigating a Lifetime of Imprisonment, page 66:
3
Figuratively Done exactly correctly, in an exemplary way that might be described in a textbook.
- Well done everyone, the tree fell exactly where we planned. That was textbook.
- […]Hilts and the commandant spar verbally in a very textbook shot/reverse shot scene, back and forth, “over the shoulder” of one interlocutor and then the other […]2021, Dana Polan, Dreams of Flight: "The Great Escape" in American Film and Culture, page 140:
4
Figuratively Learned from, or as if learned from, a textbook, as opposed to personal discovery or experience.
- He has a textbook understanding of company law but no practical experience of litigation.
- So a lot of women will be very textbook if something meets the definition of sexual harassment, whereas a lot of men are more laissez-faire.2023, Pamela Aronson, Matthew R. Fleming, Gender Revolution: How Electoral Politics and #MeToo are Reshaping Everyday Life:
- Related terms
- casebook