playbook

play·book | \ ˈplā-ˌbu̇k

How to pronounce playbook (audio)

\

Definition of playbook

1 : one or more plays in book form

2 : a notebook containing diagrammed football plays

3 : a stock of usual tactics or methods straight from his opponent's political playbook

Examples of playbook in a Sentence

He studied the new plays in the team's playbook.

Recent Examples on the Web There are guidelines on sanitation standards and safety measures to help restaurants lower the risk of workers getting sick and prevent the virus’ spread, but there is no playbook for what should happen when an employee actually does get sick. — Claire Ballor, Dallas News, "‘This is everywhere’: A growing list of Dallas-area restaurants with COVID-19 cases among staff," 18 June 2020 Investors may need to dust off the trans-Atlantic tariff playbook. — Rochelle Toplensky, WSJ, "Washington Ups the Ante in Digital Tax Standoff," 18 June 2020 Both in his playbook and from a technical standpoint. — Joel A. Erickson, The Indianapolis Star, "New Colts QB Jacob Eason improvised workouts with rookie WRs Michael Pittman, Dezmon Patmon," 18 June 2020 Police presence in the early afternoon seemed fairly light, with officers avoiding the standard playbook for central London protests of corralling crowds onto a specific route, and with few officers visible in Parliament Square. — Billy Perrigo/london, Time, "'The U.K. Is Not Innocent.' George Floyd Protests Spark Anti-Racism Demonstrations Across Britain," 8 June 2020 The perception that Engel is an absentee congressman is the crux of Bowman's campaign and is similar to the playbook run by Ocasio-Cortez's successful campaign in Brooklyn. — Aaron Navarro, CBS News, "Eliot Engel faces potential upset from progressive primary challenger," 16 June 2020 Trying to make the situation in Seattle look more violent than it really is plays directly into the Trump playbook for the protests. — Bill Goodykoontz, azcentral, "Fox News says doctored photos were 'errors.' But they were fake news, plain and simple," 15 June 2020 Republicans responded to the election of Barack Obama in 2008 not by trying to broaden their own base or appeal to a changing nation, but by modernizing voter suppression tactics out of the old Jim Crow playbook. — David Daley, Time, "Voter Suppression Is Still One of the Greatest Obstacles to a More Just America," 12 June 2020 So sure, over the years the Ducks gave Knight a football playbook. — oregonlive, "Canzano: It’s about to be Dr. Phil Knight at the University of Oregon," 12 June 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'playbook.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Keep scrolling for more

Learn More about playbook

Dictionary Entries near playbook

Statistics for playbook

Last Updated

1 Jul 2020

Cite this Entry

“Playbook.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/playbook. Accessed 5 Jul. 2020.

Keep scrolling for more

WORD OF THE DAY

deracinate

See Definitions and Examples »

Test Your Vocabulary

A More Exception(al) Quiz

Which of the following words is not a synonym for ‘a young person’?

Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words?

Dictionary Devil

Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way.