boilerplate

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)A sheet of copper or steel used in the construction of a boiler.
2. (UK, countable, uncountable)The rating plate or nameplate required to be affixed to a boiler by the Boiler Explosions Act (1882).
3. (countable, uncountable)A plate attached to industrial machinery, identifying information such as manufacturer, model number, serial number, and power requirements.
4. (countable, uncountable)Syndicated material.

   “[…] they have neither the responsibility nor the inclination to cover the real news of the community and consequently have little editorial expense, relying on handouts and cheap boilerplate materials to fill up the spots where they have no ads.”

5. (countable, uncountable)Standard text of a legal or official nature added to documents or labels.

   “They put that boilerplate on all the warning labels.”

6. (countable, uncountable)A standard piece of program code used routinely and added with a text editor or word processor.
7. (countable, uncountable)Formulaic or hackneyed language.
8. (countable, uncountable)Hard, icy snow which may be dangerous for skiing.

adj

1. (not-comparable)Describing text or other material of a standard or routine nature.

   “The contract contained all the usual boilerplate clauses.”

   “It’s an oldie, but not a goodie: one of those boilerplate kids’ movie plots about a workaholic adult who needs a serious jolt to their inner child, complete with a buck-passing, golf-playing idiot boss (Mark Gatiss) and a big presentation that’s due tomorrow.”

   “Devoid of even boilerplate language offering support for Israel and its defense, the statement made clear: this would be Israel’s conflict, not Trump’s.”

2. (not-comparable)Used to refer to a non-functional spacecraft used to test configuration and procedures.

   “A boilerplate spacecraft was used to test the rocket.”

verb

1. (transitive)To store standard text so that it can easily be retrieved for reuse.

   “Any text that you have reason to use more than once can be boilerplated by simply tucking it away in a file (on disk) […]”

   “Boilerplated sections should be examined for updating each time they are used.”