open book


noun
  1. someone or something easily understood or interpreted; something very clear:The child's face is an open book.

Origin of open book

1
First recorded in 1850–55

Words Nearby open book

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use open book in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for open book

open book

noun
  1. a person or thing without secrecy or concealment that can be easily known or interpreted

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with open book

open book

Something or someone that can be readily examined or understood, as in His entire life is an open book. This metaphoric expression is often expanded to read someone like an open book, meaning “to discern someone's thoughts or feelings”; variations of this metaphor were used by Shakespeare: “Read o'er the volume of young Paris' face,” (Romeo and Juliet, 1:3) and “O, like a book of sport thou'lt read me o'er” (Troilus and Cressida, 4:5). [Mid-1800s] For an antonym, see closed book.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.