Word.ws English Dictionary

poison pens

poison pens is the plural of poison pen.

Meaning of poison pen

Noun

poison pen (plural poison pens)

  1. (idiomatic) A manner, means, or tone of expression had by a written work, characterized by spitefulness, defamation, and/or intimidation directed toward a person, organization, or point of view.
    • Peter Isaacson continued his attack on Hearst and the poison pen of his editors.1936 August 31, “Maine Politics Afield”, in Lewiston Evening Journal, USA, retrieved 27 Aug 2010
  2. (attributive, sometimes hyphenated) Of, pertaining to, or possessing such a manner of expression.
    • In a fair political fight in which neither side wishes to take unfair advantage of an opponent, last-minute poison-pen circulars should be banned.1938 November 5, “Editorial: Watch Out For The Poison Pen”, in The Afro-American, retrieved 27 Aug 2010, page 4

Questions about poison pens

What is poison pens the plural of?
Poison pens is the plural of poison pen.

Words near poison pens in the dictionary

  1. poison pawn
  2. poison pawns
  3. poison pen
  4. poison pen letter
  5. poison pen letters
  6. poison pens
  7. poison pill
  8. poison pills
  9. poison queue
  10. poison queues
  11. poison sumac

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: poison pens (page history and authors); poison pen (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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