Dickensian
Britishadjective
-
of Charles Dickens or his works
-
-
squalid and poverty-stricken
working conditions were truly Dickensian
-
characterized by jollity and conviviality
a Dickensian scene round the Christmas tree
-
-
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
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
He gained enemies along the way but also followers who cast him as a Dickensian hero willing to fight for the neediest.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 9, 2024
“The Dickensian orphan boy was Pip from Great Expectations, and he was carrying the letter ‘E,’ making him Pip-E or, you know, Pippi.”
From "Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics" by 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.
