ˈspelling-book
[spelling vbl. n.2]
A book designed to teach spelling.
| 1677 T. Lye (title), New Spelling-Book. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 296 ¶1 By the Assistance of a Spelling-Book it's legible. 1714 Mandeville Fab. Bees (1733) I. 332 Buried alive in their hall under a great heap of primers and spelling-books. c 1775 Johnson in Boswell (Oxf. ed.) I. 30 Tom Brown..published a spelling-book, and dedicated it to the Universe. 1828 Miss Mitford Village Ser. iii. (1863) 7 Superintending the different exercises of the needle, the spelling-book, and the slate. 1852 C. W. Hoskyns Talpa xx. (1854) 177 Nature is a schoolmaster that teaches without spelling-books. |
| attrib. 1771 Luckombe Hist. Printing 270 [The hyphen] has given employment..to a number of Spelling-Book-Authors. 1835 Macaulay in Trevelyan Compet. Wallah (1864) 421 They designate the education which their opponents recommend as a mere spelling-book education. |