bodice ripper
Syllables: bod·ice rip·perUK/ˈbɒdɪs ˌɹɪpə//ˈbɑdɪs ˌɹɪpɚ/
bodice ripper noun: a romantic novel, usually in a historical setting, with frank depictions of sexual activity, especially one in which the female protagonist is seduced; (by extension) a film, television programme, etc., featuring such activity.
Noun
bodice ripper (plural bodice rippers)
- A romantic novel, usually in a historical setting, with frank depictions of sexual activity, especially one in which the female protagonist is seduced; (by extension) a film, television programme, etc., featuring such activity.
- My aunt would bring a stack of torrid bodice rippers with her to the beach, and would unfailingly blush if disturbed in her reading.
- Publishers call them hot historicals as opposed to either the virginal variety Barbara Cartland writes or to the bodice rippers "because that's usually what happens to the heroines," Price explained.1978 February 8, Charitey Simmons, “Dizzying passion ruffles the pages of the ‘hot’ historical novel”, in Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Ill.: Tribune Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, section 2, page 4
- Synonyms:
- hysterical historical
Examples of bodice ripper in a sentence
- The name "bodice ripper" was derived from the frequent rapes and sexual assaults that the heroines experienced.1984, Margaret Ann Jensen, “Rivals and Writers”, in Love’s $weet Return: The Harlequin Story, Bowling Green, Oh.: Bowling Green State...
- Never having been an ardent fan of conventional ‘bodice rippers’ or nostalgic fossilisations of a past we never had, I was surprised by my reaction to the costumes.1997, Stella Bruzzi, “Introduction: Clothing and Cinema”, in Undressing Cinema: Clothing and Identity in the Movies, Abingdon, Oxfordshire...
- These novels became known as "bodice rippers" because they were much more sexually explicit than earlier romances had been.1999, Paulette Richards, “Literary Contexts”, in Kathleen Gregory Klein, editor, Terry McMillan: A Critical Companion (Critical Companions...
- [M]y mother chased her dream of becoming a character in one of those frontier romance novels—buckskin bodice rippers, she called them—that she so adored.2015, Seamus McGraw, “Sundance”, in Betting the Farm on a Drought: Stories from the Front Lines of Climate Change, Austin, Tex.: University...
Synonyms of bodice ripper
Forms of bodice ripper
| plural | bodice rippers |
|---|---|
| alternative form | bodiceripper |
| alternative form | bodice-ripper |
Origin of bodice ripper
From the fact that the female protagonists in such novels would often have their bodices (blouses or corsets) removed with some force before sexual activity commenced.
Words formed from bodice ripper
Questions about bodice ripper
- What does bodice ripper mean?
- Bodice ripper means a romantic novel, usually in a historical setting, with frank depictions of sexual activity, especially one in which the female protagonist is seduced; (by extension) a film, television programme, etc., featuring such activity.
- How do you use bodice ripper in a sentence?
- The name "bodice ripper" was derived from the frequent rapes and sexual assaults that the heroines experienced.
- What part of speech is bodice ripper?
- Bodice ripper is a noun.
- How do you pronounce bodice ripper?
- Bodice ripper is pronounced /ˈbɒdɪs ˌɹɪpə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of bodice ripper?
- The plural of bodice ripper is bodice rippers.
Words near bodice ripper in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bodice ripper (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-bodice-ripper.ogg.
Cite this entry: “bodice ripper.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bodice_ripper. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.