Word.ws English Dictionary

penny-a-liner

penny-a-liner noun: one who supplies writing to public journals for a set fee per line of text; a poor writer for hire; a hack.

Noun

penny-a-liner (plural penny-a-liners)

  1. (dated, derogatory) One who supplies writing to public journals for a set fee per line of text; a poor writer for hire; a hack.
    • […] (a dozen years ago he was not even a penny-a-liner: no such luck); […]1840, M. A. Titmarsh [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], The Paris Sketch Book, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John Macrone, […], →OCLC

Forms of penny-a-liner

pluralpenny-a-liners

Origin of penny-a-liner

From penny-a-line + -er.

Questions about penny-a-liner

What does penny-a-liner mean?
Penny-a-liner means one who supplies writing to public journals for a set fee per line of text; a poor writer for hire; a hack.
What part of speech is penny-a-liner?
Penny-a-liner is a noun.
What is the plural of penny-a-liner?
The plural of penny-a-liner is penny-a-liners.

Words near penny-a-liner in the dictionary

  1. penny whistles
  2. penny wisdom
  3. penny wise and pound foolish
  4. penny wise, pound foolish
  5. penny-a-line
  6. penny-a-liner
  7. penny-a-liners
  8. penny-ante
  9. penny-dreadfulish
  10. penny-dreadfulism
  11. penny-farthing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: penny-a-liner (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.

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Cite this entry: “penny-a-liner.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/penny-a-liner. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.