Adjective : a copybook sort of phrase.    From Dictionary.com. 

The only blot on his copybook was the booking he earned for his cellies as he launched himself into the fans.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Daily Record - Home] Reference

"Instead it is going to be seen as a glaring miss and a blot on his copybook, which is sad for him.    From Wordnik.com.  [4thegame.com: Latest Barclays Premier League News] Reference

As far as I know, that investigation was copybook.    From Wordnik.com.  [A Taste for Burning]

A copybook president has to be a constitutionalist.    From Wordnik.com.  [Why are South Indians so smart?] Reference

With a sigh of resignation, he opened the copybook.    From Wordnik.com.  [The White Order]

It is not the only blot on Jean's financial copybook.    From Wordnik.com.  [Wyclef Jean: The pop star who would be president] Reference

He was not a 'copybook maxim socialist', he declared.    From Wordnik.com.  [Class & Colour in South Africa 1850-1950 - Chapter 23] Reference

He rode a copybook race, cool, well paced, unflustered.    From Wordnik.com.  [Bonecrack]

This R. Venkataraman was anything but a copybook president.    From Wordnik.com.  [Why are South Indians so smart?] Reference

I then proceeded to read these exact words from that copybook.    From Wordnik.com.  [Pete Fornatale: Woodstock's 40th Anniversary] Reference

Sister Angelica looked up from the copybook she was correcting.    From Wordnik.com.  [Flamsted quarries] Reference

Talking of Harrogate, I fear I somewhat blotted my copybook there.    From Wordnik.com.  [Lord Bonkers' Diary: Nick Clegg gets a haircut] Reference

But it is another major stain on Cameron's Cuddly Nu Tory copybook.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2007-03-18] Reference

It contained two things: an envelope and what looked like a copybook.    From Wordnik.com.  [Phoenix And Ashes]

Once OLD MORALITY used to write in his copybook, 'The QUEEN can Do no Wrong.'.    From Wordnik.com.  [Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 100, April 4, 1891] Reference

Sargent who alone had lingered came forward slowly, showing an open copybook.    From Wordnik.com.  [Ulysses] Reference

He was in the Foreign Service and blotted his copybook, as I daresay you know.    From Wordnik.com.  [Scales of Justice]

I rather blotted my copybook when I started joining in the game towards the end.    From Wordnik.com.  [Brown v Under 10 girls football] Reference

His tone was conversational, offering a copybook example of how mine should sound.    From Wordnik.com.  [Northlight]

The average lawyer's career might withstand a small, very old blot on his copybook.    From Wordnik.com.  [Captives Of The Night]

Time and time again you get these films coming out with some of the same bloody copybook.    From Wordnik.com.  [Ridley Scott Still Hates SciFi] Reference

So everybody began to think if he had complaints, and Master Mule wrote them into a copybook.    From Wordnik.com.  [The False Chevalier or, The Lifeguard of Marie Antoinette] Reference

Many a time have I written out in my copybook, 'Take care of your Neighbour's Pence, and your own.    From Wordnik.com.  [Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 100, March 21, 1891] Reference

That was an old saying I learned from my copybook, and even in the wilderness it seems to hold true.    From Wordnik.com.  [Patriotic Plays and Pageants for Young People] Reference

The victories in Adelaide and Melbourne have been of copybook quality, as stress-free as any wins can be.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Ashes 2010: Virtues of modern age help England join select band | Vic Marks] Reference

On the day that any copybook maxim is carried out there will be something like an earthquake on the earth.    From Wordnik.com.  [G.K. Speaks - The Enemies of Property] Reference

Andrews is not trusted by the unions and blotted his copybook when openly promoting stock trnasfer in RCT.    From Wordnik.com.  [Carwyn's cards on the table] Reference

You're probably wrong about Prestwich too as you have blotted your copybook with a very shoddy Northenden analysis.    From Wordnik.com.  [Biffa Digital: St Lawrence Has Made a Horror Film (PG)] Reference

I'm guessing that make's you the burnt fool's bandaged finger, or perhaps one of the gods of the copybook headings.    From Wordnik.com.  [Worst of Craigslist: Delicious, Savory Bike Love] Reference

What Sally had not told her mother was that LaSalle had witnessed her stealing a five-cent copybook from a five-and-dime.    From Wordnik.com.  [His necessary and sufficient realism] Reference

White's too shrewd a cookie to let an opportunity for agrandisement to go by and he's going to keep his copybook spotless.    From Wordnik.com.  [You Try And Do a Good Deed...] Reference

A copybook lay open, waiting, on the sleeping boy's small table; there were quills beside it, their ends more or less chewed.    From Wordnik.com.  [Calde of the Long Sun]

From that point, the British team sailed a copybook race, crossing the finish line 44 seconds ahead to make the scoreline 3-0.    From Wordnik.com.  [Ben Ainslie's TeamOrigin cruising ahead of BMW Oracle in 1851 Cup] Reference

The real kind were a lot bigger, but the ones in his copybook had been better, and stronger somehow, even if they were not real.    From Wordnik.com.  [Calde of the Long Sun]

Senator McCain preaches concern for energy and the environment but wrote it out of his copybook with his vice presidential pick.    From Wordnik.com.  [Jessica Catto: Pistol Packin' Mama: The Republicans' New Campaign Song] Reference

The Junkers was not more than a thousand feet up now and coming straight towards them, a beautiful, copybook example of a sitting shot.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Breaking Wave]