| 释义 |
ˈpenny-a-ˈline, a.
[The phrase (a) penny a line used attrib.]
Of writing or a writer: Paid at the rate of a penny a line; of cheap and superficial literary quality. (Cf. penny-a-liner.)
1833Westm. Rev. XVIII. 199 The penny-a-line men are generally persons who are by no means qualified to report common proceedings. 1849Thackeray Lett. Feb., [It] will afford matter to no end of penny-a-line speculation. 1930Argosy Apr. 15/2 It's my last bit of freedom before I sink into eternal penny-a-line slavedom.
So ˈpenny-a-ˈline v. trans. and intr., to write at a penny a line; to review in the style of a penny-a-liner (see penny-a-liner); ˈpenny-a-ˈlining vbl. n., the practice or work of a penny-a-liner; ppl. a., writing, or written, at a penny a line, or in the style of a penny-a-liner.
1849Thackeray Pendennis lxxii, Dr. Johnson has been down the street many a time with ragged shoes, and a bundle of penny-a-lining for the Gent's Magazine. 1850Punch 28 Sept. 140/1 (heading) Penny-a-lining under difficulties. 1851Mrs. Gaskell Lett. (1966) 172, I swore I would penny-a-line and have nothing to do with publishers never no more. 1852Mrs. Carlyle Lett. I. 172, I must positively interrupt this penny-a-lining, and go to bed. 1874Geo. Eliot Let. 2 Nov. (1956) VI. 87 A penny-a-lining literary affair. 1878Stubbs Lect. Study Hist. (1886) 129 The very penny-a-lining letters of inferior men. 1897Hare Story of my Life (1900) VI. xxx. 467 Reviews, whose writers can scarcely even glance at the books they are penny-a-lining. a1941V. Woolf Captain's Death Bed (1950) 10 Penny-a-lining came into fashion. 1946‘G. Orwell’ Crit. Ess. 169 In France, all kinds of petty rats—police officials, penny-a-lining journalists, women who have slept with German soldiers—are hunted down. |