bodice ripper

American  

noun

Informal.

1. a modern Gothic novel or historical romance, usually in paperback format, featuring at least one passionate love scene, characteristically one in which the heroine vainly resists submitting to the villain or hero.

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bodice ripper British  

noun

1. informal a romantic novel, usually on a historical theme, that involves some sex and violence

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Example Sentences

In the early 1980s, still the heyday of the bodice ripper, literary critic Janice Radway set out to prove the haters wrong.

From Washington Post

Dismissing “Outlander” as a bodice ripper would be a serious misunderstanding of why this show is so appealing.

From Los Angeles Times

If you are reading Ann Coulter or a trashy bodice ripper you are gaining and learning nothing.

From New York Times

From what we hear, the book sounds something like “Fifty Shades of 9/11,” a bodice ripper about a beautiful Chinese woman who loses the love her life in the twin towers.

From Washington Post

It may turn out to be a bodice ripper of a legislative session.

From New York Times