Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Cookbook \Cook"book`\ (-b[oo^]k`), n.
   A book of directions and receipts for cooking; a cookery
   book. [U.S.]

         ``Just How'': a key to the cookbooks.    --Mrs. A. D.
                                                  T. Whitney.

Source : WordNet®

cookbook
     n : a book of recipes and cooking directions [syn: {cookery book}]

Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

cookbook
     
         (From amateur electronics and radio) A book of
        small code segments that the reader can use to do various
        {magic} things in programs.
     
        One current example is the "{PostScript} Language Tutorial and
        Cookbook" by Adobe Systems, Inc (Addison-Wesley, ISBN
        0-201-10179-3), also known as the {Blue Book} which has
        recipes for things like wrapping text around arbitrary curves
        and making 3D fonts.
     
        Cookbooks, slavishly followed, can lead one into {voodoo
        programming}, but are useful for hackers trying to {monkey up}
        small programs in unknown languages.  This function is
        analogous to the role of phrasebooks in human languages.
     
        [{Jargon File}]
     
        (1994-11-04)