boilerplate vs dummy

boilerplate

noun
  • Formulaic or hackneyed language. 

  • A sheet of copper or steel used in the construction of a boiler. 

  • Syndicated material. 

  • The rating plate or nameplate required to be affixed to a boiler by the Boiler Explosions Act (1882). 

  • Standard text or program code used routinely and added with a text editor or word processor; text of a legal or official nature added to documents or labels. 

  • Hard, icy snow which may be dangerous to ski on. 

  • A plate attached to industrial machinery, identifying information such as manufacturer, model number, serial number, and power requirements. 

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

adj
  • Describing text or other material of a standard or routine nature. 

  • Used to refer to a non-functional spacecraft used to test configuration and procedures. 

dummy

noun
  • A word serving only to make a construction grammatical. 

  • A newborn animal that is indifferent to stimulus and does not voluntarily move. 

  • A player whose hand is shown and is to be played from by another player. 

  • A stupid person. 

  • A deliberately nonfunctional device or tool used in place of a functional one. 

  • Something constructed with the size and form of a human, to be used in place of a person. 

  • A figure of a person or animal used by a ventriloquist; a puppet. 

  • A "dummy teat"; a plastic or rubber teat used to soothe or comfort a baby; a pacifier. 

  • An unused parameter or value. 

  • A person who is the mere tool of another; a man of straw. 

  • A feigned pass or kick or play in order to deceive an opponent. 

  • A bodily gesture meant to fool an opposing player; a feint. 

adv
  • Extremely. 

verb
  • To feint. 

  • To make a mock-up or prototype version of something, without some or all off its intended functionality. 

How often have the words boilerplate and dummy occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )