textbook

Etymology

text + book

noun

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

adj

1. Of or pertaining to textbooks or their style, especially in being dry and pedagogical; textbooky, textbooklike.
   It is likely to kill interest, and give both teacher and pupils a didactic, textbook attitude at the very beginning. 1917, George Ransom Twiss, A textbook in the principles of science teaching
   They are mentioned in his flat, textbook voice, alongside schoolroom descriptions of topography and assessments of economic significance. 2000, Okasha El Daly, Janet Starkey, Desert travellers: from Herodotus to T.E. Lawrence
   ...a kind of descriptive account or a social, geographical, anthropological, or historical commentary that may at times have a certain textbook tone to it. 2004, David Henn, Old Spain and new Spain: the travel narratives of Camilo José Cela
2. Having the typical characteristics of some class of phenomenon, so that it might be included as an example in a textbook.
   All her rebelliousness, her deceit, her folly, her dirty-mindedness—everything has been burned out of her. It was a perfect conversion, a textbook case. 1949, George Orwell, chapter 2, in Nineteen Eighty-Four, part three
   It was a textbook case of how prompt government action could avert a major crisis. 1997, Alexander De Waal, Famine crimes: politics and the disaster relief industry in Africa
   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
   In many ways the Korean nuclear crisis is a textbook example of coercive diplomacy — its strengths as well as the risks inherent in such a strategy. 2003, Robert J Art, Patrick M Cronin, The United States and coercive diplomacy
   It would help if you would stop telling me I have a textbook cervix. 2016-10-10, “The Cohabitation Experimentation”, in The Big Bang Theory, season 10, episode 4, spoken by Bernadette (Melissa Rauch)
   “That’s textbook bad security practice, and this is an example of why — it’s cumbersome to revoke access and hard to attribute actions to the responsible people,” said J. Alex Halderman, a computer science and engineering professor at the University of Michigan. 2020-12-11, Patricia Mazzei, “A State Scientist Questioned Florida’s Virus Data. Now Her Home’s Been Raided.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
   In Scotland, the Tay [bridge] fell (in part) as textbook testament to the brittleness of cast iron. July 27 2022, Dr Joseph Brennan, “Bridge disasters that spanned an Empire”, in RAIL, number 962, page 58