Word.ws English Dictionary

Tijuana Bible

Tijuana Bible noun: a kind of palm-sized pornographic comic book produced in the United States from the 1920s to the early 1960s.

Noun (1)

Tijuana Bible (plural Tijuana Bibles)

  1. (slang) A kind of palm-sized pornographic comic book produced in the United States from the 1920s to the early 1960s.
    • MR BARNES. I would say that the most prevalent [pornographic literature] would be the type known to us, or in the language of the people who deal in it, ... the Tijuana Bible, a small [cartoon] booklet about 2 by 3 inches, that is very lewd and very obscene in its character. ... [I]t [shows all...1955, Mr. Bobo, Mr. Barnes, US Senate, Hearing Before the Subcommitee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency, page 374
    • “You acquainted with the Tijuana Bibles?” ¶ “I've heard a lot goes on in those border towns but not much that calls for religious reference works.” ¶ “These bibles they don't use, they make, and fast as they come off the presses they go over the border.”1972, Bernard Wolfe, Memoirs of a not altogether shy pornographer, page 18

Noun (2) capitalized: Tijuana bible

Tijuana bible (plural Tijuana bibles)

  1. (alternative) Alternative form of Tijuana Bible.

Synonyms of Tijuana Bible

Forms of Tijuana Bible

pluralTijuana Bibles
alternative formTijuana bible
pluralTijuana bibles

Origin of Tijuana Bible

From Tijuana, deriving from the incorrect belief that these were smuggled across the US-Mexico border, plus Bible, used ironically in this context due to the publications' pornographic nature. Attested since the 1950s.

Questions about Tijuana Bible

What does Tijuana Bible mean?
Tijuana Bible means a kind of palm-sized pornographic comic book produced in the United States from the 1920s to the early 1960s.
What part of speech is Tijuana Bible?
Tijuana Bible is a noun.
What is the plural of Tijuana Bible?
The plural of Tijuana Bible is Tijuana Bibles.

Words near Tijuana Bible in the dictionary

  1. Tijerina
  2. Tijerinas
  3. Tijerino
  4. Tijerinos
  5. Tijuana
  6. Tijuana Bible
  7. Tijuana Bibles
  8. Tijuanan
  9. Tijuanans
  10. tik
  11. tika

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Tijuana Bible (page history and authors); Tijuana bible (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: “Tijuana Bible.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tijuana_bible. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.