textbook - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From text +‎ book.

textbook (plural textbooks)

  1. (education) A coursebook, a formal manual of instruction in a specific subject, especially one for use in schools or colleges.

formal manual of instruction

textbook (comparative more textbook, superlative most textbook)

  1. (literally) Of or pertaining to textbooks or their style, especially in being dry and pedagogical; textbooky, textbooklike.
    • 2011, Thomas Karl Dietrich, The Culture of Astronomy: Origin of Number, Geometry, Science, Law, and Religion, page 347:
      These figures are just too textbook, or papyrus-like, as if this information came off of a shelf in the Library of Alexandria
  2. (figuratively) Having the typical characteristics of some class of phenomenon, so that it might be included as an example in a textbook.
    • 2003, Felice Picano, A house on the ocean, a house on the bay:
      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...
    • 2011, Inge Leimberg, 'What May Words Say ... ?': A Reading of the The Merchant of Venics, page 250:
      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.
    • 2024, Nozomu Mochitsuki, Tearmoon Empire, volume 12, page 10:
      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!
    • 2025, Sheena King, Submerged: On Healing from Abuse While Navigating a Lifetime of Imprisonment, page 66:
      It seemed too textbook, too talk-showish, but it was true.
  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.
    • 2021, Dana Polan, Dreams of Flight: "The Great Escape" in American Film and Culture, page 140:
      […] 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 […]
  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.
    • 2023, Pamela Aronson, Matthew R. Fleming, Gender Revolution: How Electoral Politics and #MeToo are Reshaping Everyday Life:
      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.

of or pertaining to textbooks or their styles