Dickensian

English

Etymology

Dickens +‎ -ian

Pronunciation

• IPA: /dɪˈkɛnzɪən/

Adjective

Dickensian (comparative more Dickensian, superlative most Dickensian)

1. Of or pertaining to Charles Dickens or, especially, his writings.
2. Reminiscent of the environments and situations most commonly portrayed in Dickens' writings, such as poverty and social injustice and other aspects of Victorian England.
   • 1987, Cecil D Eby, The road to Armageddon

     As though in expiation of their sires' wealth, schoolboys often had to live in conditions that would have disgraced a Dickensian workhouse.

   • 2001, Tim Moore, Frost on My Moustache: The Arctic Exploits of a Lord and a Loafer

     By the time I pressed a huge and over-polished brass bell I'd devolved into a shifty-eyed, cinder-cheeked Dickensian urchin...

   • 2004, William Sloane Coffin, A Passion for the Possible: A Message to U.S. Churches

     ...a Dickensian world of wretched excess and wretched despair...

Translations

of or pertaining to Charles Dickens or, especially, his writings

• Finnish: dickensläinen (fi)

• French: dickensien (fr)

reminiscent of the environments and situations most commonly portrayed in Dickens' writings, such as poverty and social injustice and other aspects of Victorian England

Noun

Dickensian (plural Dickensians)

1. A reader or scholar of Charles Dickens.

Translations

a reader or scholar of Charles Dickens