textbook

plural textbooks · alternative text-book

1. educationA coursebook, a formal manual of instruction in a specific subject, especially one for use in schools or colleges.

comparative more textbook · superlative most textbook

1. literallyOf 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 Alexandria

   2011, Thomas Karl Dietrich, The Culture of Astronomy: Origin of Number, Geometry, Science, Law, and Religion, page 347

2. figurativelyHaving the typical characteristics of some class of phenomenon, so that it might be included as an example in a textbook.

   textbook case

   4 more examples

   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

   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. figurativelyDone 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.

   1 more example

   […]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. figurativelyLearned 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.

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   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