hornbook

[hawrn-boo k]

See more synonyms for hornbook on Thesaurus.com

noun

a leaf or page containing the alphabet, religious materials, etc., covered with a sheet of transparent horn and fixed in a frame with a handle, formerly used in teaching children to read.
a primer or book of rudiments.

Origin of hornbook

First recorded in 1580–90; horn + book

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for hornbook

Contemporary Examples

This may seem like hornbook eighth-grade civics, but it bears repeating.
A Tea Party Shock to the System
Stephen L. Carter
August 1, 2011

Historical Examples

But I swear to thee I never read through the hornbook of the heavens.
The Book of Khalid
Ameen Rihani
For hornbook and primmer for Jenkins' girle to learn to read, 6d.
Notes and Queries for Worcestershire
John Noake
The printed cardboard battledore was a successor of the hornbook.
Child Life in Colonial Days
Alice Morse Earle
This like the criss-cross row in the hornbook was originally Christ's cross.
Child Life in Colonial Days
Alice Morse Earle
Decker, in "Gul's Hornbook," speaks of "the unicorn whose horn is worth a city."
The Queer, the Quaint and the Quizzical
Frank H. Stauffer

British Dictionary definitions for hornbook

hornbook

noun

a page bearing a religious text or the alphabet, held in a frame with a thin window of flattened cattle horn over it
any elementary primer

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

hornbook

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Related Words

Examples from the Web for hornbook

Contemporary Examples

This may seem like hornbook eighth-grade civics, but it bears repeating.

Historical Examples

But I swear to thee I never read through the hornbook of the heavens.

For hornbook and primmer for Jenkins' girle to learn to read, 6d.

The printed cardboard battledore was a successor of the hornbook.

This like the criss-cross row in the hornbook was originally Christ's cross.

Decker, in "Gul's Hornbook," speaks of "the unicorn whose horn is worth a city."

hornbook

Origin of hornbook