penny dreadful
noun
a cheap, sensational novel of adventure, crime, or violence; dime novel.
Jump To:
-
penny dreadful
-
penny-dreadful
penny-dreadfulnouna cheap, often lurid or sensational book or magazine
penny dreadful
Americannoun
Chiefly British.
-
penny dreadfuls
plural
penny-dreadful
British
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of penny dreadful
First recorded in 1870–75
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.
See Examples For:
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
The 19th century had a similar macabre popular fascination, the penny dreadful.
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
That’s just the penny-dreadful part of you talking, Jim; the Captain Mayne Plunkett.
From The Spoilers of the Valley by Robert Watson
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.
