Dictionary

pot boiler en · NOUN

Etymology

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.

Meanings

1. (derogatory, figuratively, mildly) A creative work of low quality (book, art, etc.), produced merely to earn a living or for profit, as opposed to serious creative expression.
   • 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. 2018 February 18, David Ehrlich, “‘Eva’ Review: Not Even Isabelle Huppert Playing an Irritated Prostitute Can Save this Limp Melodrama”, in IndieWire:
   • 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. 1925, Florence Scovel Shinn, The Game of Life and how to play it:
   • Arists and novelists of a certain stamp joke about ‘pot-boilers’, the name facetiously given to hasty, worthless pictures and books[…] [1864 August 27, Saturday Review:
2. A stone used to transfer heat from a fire into a vessel of water, so as to heat the contents.

Forms

Translations (3)

bg халтура (low-quality creative work) · ru халту́ра (low-quality creative work) · ko 불쏘시개 (low-quality creative work)