See pot boiler in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "The figurative sense comes from the notion that the writer's or artist's output is enough to provide sustenance; compare breadwinner, put food on the table, and keep the lights on.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "pot boilers",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
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"expansion": "pot boiler (plural pot boilers)",
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"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
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{
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"_dis": "83 17",
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{
"_dis": "83 17",
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{
"_dis": "89 11",
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{
"_dis": "98 2",
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"examples": [
{
"ref": "[1864 August 27, Saturday Review:",
"text": "Arists and novelists of a certain stamp joke about ‘pot-boilers’, the name facetiously given to hasty, worthless pictures and books[…]",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1925, Florence Scovel Shinn, The Game of Life and how to play it:",
"text": "No man is a success in business unless he loves his work. The picture the artist paints for love is his greatest work. The pot-boiler is always something to live down.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2018 February 18, David Ehrlich, “‘Eva’ Review: Not Even Isabelle Huppert Playing an Irritated Prostitute Can Save this Limp Melodrama”, in IndieWire:",
"text": "A limp, sudsy adaptation of James Hadley Chase’s 1945 novel “Eve” (a potboiler that Joseph Losey once spun into a Jeanne Moreau vehicle of the same name), “Eva” begins with an engaging sequence that instantly sets the tone by subverting its own beauty.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A creative work of low quality (book, art, etc), produced merely to earn a living or for profit, as opposed to serious creative expression."
],
"id": "en-pot_boiler-en-noun-Xh~RxBci",
"links": [
[
"derogatory",
"derogatory"
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[
"creative",
"creative"
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[
"work",
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[
"book",
"book"
],
[
"art",
"art"
],
[
"earn",
"earn"
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[
"living",
"living"
],
[
"profit",
"profit"
],
[
"expression",
"expression"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(figurative, mildly derogatory) A creative work of low quality (book, art, etc), produced merely to earn a living or for profit, as opposed to serious creative expression."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"_dis1": "90 10",
"word": "potboiler"
},
{
"_dis1": "90 10",
"word": "pot-boiler"
}
],
"tags": [
"derogatory",
"figuratively",
"mildly"
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "98 2",
"code": "bg",
"lang": "Bulgarian",
"roman": "haltura",
"sense": "low-quality creative work",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "халтура"
},
{
"_dis1": "98 2",
"code": "ko",
"lang": "Korean",
"roman": "bulssosigae",
"sense": "low-quality creative work",
"word": "불쏘시개"
},
{
"_dis1": "98 2",
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "xaltúra",
"sense": "low-quality creative work",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "халту́ра"
}
]
},
{
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"orig": "en:Archaeology",
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"Social sciences",
"Zoology",
"All topics",
"Society",
"Biology",
"Fundamental"
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"source": "w"
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],
"glosses": [
"A stone used to transfer heat from a fire into a vessel of water, so as to heat the contents."
],
"id": "en-pot_boiler-en-noun-xbn0X7XJ",
"links": [
[
"archaeology",
"archaeology"
],
[
"stone",
"stone"
],
[
"transfer",
"transfer"
],
[
"heat",
"heat"
],
[
"fire",
"fire"
],
[
"vessel",
"vessel"
],
[
"water",
"water"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(archaeology) A stone used to transfer heat from a fire into a vessel of water, so as to heat the contents."
],
"topics": [
"archaeology",
"history",
"human-sciences",
"sciences"
]
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"pot boiler"
],
"word": "pot boiler"
}
{
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"en:Art"
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"etymology_text": "The figurative sense comes from the notion that the writer's or artist's output is enough to provide sustenance; compare breadwinner, put food on the table, and keep the lights on.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "pot boilers",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
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"expansion": "pot boiler (plural pot boilers)",
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"pos": "noun",
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{
"categories": [
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"examples": [
{
"ref": "[1864 August 27, Saturday Review:",
"text": "Arists and novelists of a certain stamp joke about ‘pot-boilers’, the name facetiously given to hasty, worthless pictures and books[…]",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1925, Florence Scovel Shinn, The Game of Life and how to play it:",
"text": "No man is a success in business unless he loves his work. The picture the artist paints for love is his greatest work. The pot-boiler is always something to live down.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2018 February 18, David Ehrlich, “‘Eva’ Review: Not Even Isabelle Huppert Playing an Irritated Prostitute Can Save this Limp Melodrama”, in IndieWire:",
"text": "A limp, sudsy adaptation of James Hadley Chase’s 1945 novel “Eve” (a potboiler that Joseph Losey once spun into a Jeanne Moreau vehicle of the same name), “Eva” begins with an engaging sequence that instantly sets the tone by subverting its own beauty.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A creative work of low quality (book, art, etc), produced merely to earn a living or for profit, as opposed to serious creative expression."
],
"links": [
[
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"derogatory"
],
[
"creative",
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"book",
"book"
],
[
"art",
"art"
],
[
"earn",
"earn"
],
[
"living",
"living"
],
[
"profit",
"profit"
],
[
"expression",
"expression"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(figurative, mildly derogatory) A creative work of low quality (book, art, etc), produced merely to earn a living or for profit, as opposed to serious creative expression."
],
"tags": [
"derogatory",
"figuratively",
"mildly"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"en:Archaeology"
],
"glosses": [
"A stone used to transfer heat from a fire into a vessel of water, so as to heat the contents."
],
"links": [
[
"archaeology",
"archaeology"
],
[
"stone",
"stone"
],
[
"transfer",
"transfer"
],
[
"heat",
"heat"
],
[
"fire",
"fire"
],
[
"vessel",
"vessel"
],
[
"water",
"water"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(archaeology) A stone used to transfer heat from a fire into a vessel of water, so as to heat the contents."
],
"topics": [
"archaeology",
"history",
"human-sciences",
"sciences"
]
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "potboiler"
},
{
"word": "pot-boiler"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "bg",
"lang": "Bulgarian",
"roman": "haltura",
"sense": "low-quality creative work",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "халтура"
},
{
"code": "ko",
"lang": "Korean",
"roman": "bulssosigae",
"sense": "low-quality creative work",
"word": "불쏘시개"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "xaltúra",
"sense": "low-quality creative work",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "халту́ра"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"pot boiler"
],
"word": "pot boiler"
}
Download raw JSONL data for pot boiler meaning in English (3.4kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-20 using wiktextract (c15a5ce and 5c11237). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.