By the book

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Meaning

Strictly according to prescribed rules, procedures or accepted methods. Can praise rigour or criticise inflexibility. The identity of 'the book' is normally generic, not necessarily the Bible. Regional use: Early literary development in England; modern sense international.

Origin

Juliet tells Romeo 'You kiss by th' book' in Romeo and Juliet around 1595, meaning according to learned form or precept; Hamlet also jokes that speakers must proceed 'by the book'. These are clear early-modern ancestors, but the modern bureaucratic sense 'according to the rules' is not securely recorded until the nineteenth century, with an 1845 example in Poe. The phrase is included for semantic development, not as a claim that today's exact sense was settled in Shakespeare's time.

Research Sources

  1. Romeo and Juliet - Entire Play Folger Shakespeare Library
  2. By the book Phrase Finder
  3. By the book Cambridge University Press & Assessment

Variants

  • Go by the book
  • Do something strictly by the book
  • By th' book

Usage Examples

  • The licensing officer handled every application strictly by the book.
  • If we go by the book, the appeal must be filed by Friday.
  • She knew when to follow precedent and when the book offered no answer.

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