Dickensian
Britishadjective
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of Charles Dickens or his works
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squalid and poverty-stricken
working conditions were truly Dickensian
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characterized by jollity and conviviality
a Dickensian scene round the Christmas tree
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grotesquely comic, as some of the characters of Dickens
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Dee and Ash provide a genuinely puzzling angle amid all the people running and searching and scheming and waiting for the disparate parts of Mr. Coben’s 19th-century-style plotting to intersect in Dickensian fashion.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 30, 2025
Like Jeanette Walls’ classic, “The Glass Castle,” Smith’s saga begins with a hard-scrabble childhood she relates as if narrating a Dickensian fairy tale.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 31, 2025
Some children are living in "Dickensian" levels of poverty, England's children's commissioner has said.
From BBC • Jul. 8, 2025
In Dickensian fashion, Pitkin is told to “go out into the world and find your way for America takes care of the honest and the industrious.”
From Salon • May 17, 2025
A more important, nearly Dickensian question: 'Who do you want to be?’
From "Shine!" by J.J. and Chris Grabenstein
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
