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hornbook Definition

horn·book (hôrn′bo̵ok′)

noun

  1. a sheet of parchment with the alphabet, a table of numbers, etc. on it, mounted on a small board with a handle and protected by a thin, transparent plate of horn: it was formerly used as a child's primer
  2. an elementary treatise

hornbook Law Definition

n

Colloquial

A law textbook, often one relied upon as authoritative in the field.