penny dreadful

American  

noun

Chiefly British.

plural

penny dreadfuls

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

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penny-dreadful British  

noun

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

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Etymology

Origin of penny dreadful

First recorded in 1870–75

Example Sentences

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

All Victorian life is here, which means the novel itself becomes a kind of freakshow, obsessed with its relationship to its own cleverly chosen epigraphs and the "penny dreadful" tales to which characters allude.

From The Guardian • Oct. 11, 2012

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

Travelers to the village were rare, but occasionally a peddler would come through the village, selling "penny dreadful" accounts of grisly murders, fateful encounters, dire doings and remarkable escapes.

From "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman