potboiler
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of potboiler
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
And there's a cheeky riposte to their critics on the jazzy potboiler They Don't Know 'Bout Us: "You say we changed? We feel the same."
From BBC • Mar. 20, 2026
A lurid tale of misadventure, moral bankruptcy and mean girls, “His & Hers” has other qualities, too, notably Tessa Thompson, whose recent turn in “Hedda” haunts her role in this potboiler.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 8, 2026
In that potboiler, a film he later disavowed as too tame, he was publicized as the first Black matinee idol for mainstream audiences.
From Washington Post • Apr. 25, 2023
Though this tale of a woman’s search for a missing friend is built using basic potboiler blocks, “Sandra,” which opened Sunday at the Vineyard Theater, is far from generic.
From New York Times • Nov. 20, 2022
Their stories were killed—they would have been an anti-climax to Keyhoe's potboiler.
From The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects by Ruppelt, Edward J.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
