Annette Gordon-Reed & Peter S. Onuf, Most Blessed of the Patriarchs: Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination (W.W. Norton & Co. 2016).
In information technology, a boilerplate is a unit of writing that can be reused over and over without change. By extension, the idea is sometimes applied to reusable programming as in boilerplate code. The term derives from steel manufacturing, where boilerplate is steel rolled into large plates for use in steam boilers.
n., adj. slang for provisions in a contract, form or legal pleading which are apparently routine and often preprinted. The term comes from an old method of printing. Today boilerplate is commonly stored in computer memory to be retrieved and copied when needed.