First recorded in 1870–75
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
That a penny dreadful character originally meant just to shock and sicken becomes instead a pitiable victim is a testament to the power of music to make bad guys, if not good, compelling.
From New York Times ● Feb. 21, 2023
Casey links the newspaper era that parallels the rise of the penny dreadful with the gestation of the 19th century idea of "new journalism."
From Salon ● Jan. 11, 2021
Conan Doyle wanted his protagonist to rise above the cheap thrills of the penny dreadful.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 3, 2017
He refers to his adopted nephew as a “foundling,” as if this were a penny dreadful, which it kind of is.
From Slate ● Jun. 13, 2012
On his bedside table were loose matches, unused stationery, a penny dreadful left facedown at the page he had stopped reading.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
It is the rare as-told-to book, or one created in collaboration with an author-for-hire, that is well-written, but “A Piece of Light” is filled with a superfluity of penny-dreadful prose.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 19, 2018
Which can make the penny-dreadful plot even more giggle-icious.
From New York Times ● Sep. 7, 2017
Instead, she praised it backhandedly as “a shallow masterpiece” that is “overwrought” with “obvious penny-dreadful popular theatrics.”
From Slate ● Nov. 1, 2015
In the 19th century, a penny-dreadful series called The Mysteries of London ran to 4.5m words over 12 years.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 19, 2010
The wildest flight of fancy of an irresponsible novelist had never created such a character in penny-dreadful fiction.
From The Dark Star by Stevens, William Dodge
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.
