noun
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a page bearing a religious text or the alphabet, held in a frame with a thin window of flattened cattle horn over it
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any elementary primer
Etymology
Origin of hornbook
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
That’s “hornbook law” — so basic it doesn’t require citation for law students.
From Los Angeles Times
In the early 1600s, a child’s first book in New England was called a hornbook, a board in the shape of a paddle upon which was written the Lord’s Prayer and the alphabet.
From Washington Times
While hornbooks present information in a more straightforward manner, they will also contain nuances your professor doesn't care about.
From US News
At the bottom of one of them, she had remembered, was a little hornbook.
From Literature
In the appendix to my Products Liability hornbook, I show how competitive considerations will lead manufacturers to implement many efficient quality control measures even in the absence of liability to injured users.
From Forbes
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
