noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   One who supplies writing to public journals for a set fee per line of text; a poor writer for hire; a hack. dated, derogatory

   "[…] (a dozen years ago he was not even a penny-a-liner: no such luck); […]"

Synonyms

All synonyms

hackhackney writerscribblerscribe

Example

More examples

"[…] (a dozen years ago he was not even a penny-a-liner: no such luck); […]"

Etymology

From penny-a-line + -er.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.