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  • penny dreadful
    penny dreadful
    noun
    a cheap, sensational novel of adventure, crime, or violence; dime novel.
  • penny-dreadful
    penny-dreadful
    noun
    a cheap, often lurid or sensational book or magazine
Synonyms

penny dreadful

American  

noun

Chiefly British.

plural

penny dreadfuls

  1. a cheap, sensational novel of adventure, crime, or violence; dime novel.

penny-dreadful British  

noun

  1. informal a cheap, often lurid or sensational book or magazine

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of penny dreadful

First recorded in 1870–75

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.