poison-pen
adjective
poi·son-pen
ˈpȯi-zᵊn-ˈpen 
: written with malice and spite and usually anonymously
a poison-pen letter
Examples of poison-pen in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
There were plenty of poison-pen letters and plenty of murders, but there was not much mystery and there was very little pain.
—
Yiyun Li, New Yorker, 15 June 2025
This one rewards not the production or performance but specifically the poison-pen songwriting that ethered Drake.
—August Brown, Los Angeles Times, 3 Feb. 2025
While Third Point is known by many for its poison-pen letters, that was the Third Point of 15 years ago.
—Kenneth Squire, CNBC, 1 Feb. 2025
Spector’s hilarious poison-pen satire of educational wokeism has led us to that point with great care.
—Jesse Green, New York Times, 17 Dec. 2024
Each story came out in recent days before reports surfaced that his own mother sent him a poison-pen email accusing him of being a serial abuser of women and something of a cad.
—Philip Elliott, TIME, 4 Dec. 2024
The story of this poison-pen scandal is, in part, about the decline of a historical British way of life and social structure that had been tied up with the country’s sense of self as an imperial power.
—Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 29 Mar. 2024
Would anyone care enough about a poison-pen letter to perform a DNA test?
—Lucy Sante, The New Yorker, 11 Nov. 2023
Sharrock sees parallels in the film’s theme with today’s social media trolling replacing poison-pen letters.
—Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 8 Sep. 2023
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Yiyun Li, New Yorker, 15 June 2025
This one rewards not the production or performance but specifically the poison-pen songwriting that ethered Drake.
—August Brown, Los Angeles Times, 3 Feb. 2025
While Third Point is known by many for its poison-pen letters, that was the Third Point of 15 years ago.
—Kenneth Squire, CNBC, 1 Feb. 2025
Spector’s hilarious poison-pen satire of educational wokeism has led us to that point with great care.
—Jesse Green, New York Times, 17 Dec. 2024
Each story came out in recent days before reports surfaced that his own mother sent him a poison-pen email accusing him of being a serial abuser of women and something of a cad.
—Philip Elliott, TIME, 4 Dec. 2024
The story of this poison-pen scandal is, in part, about the decline of a historical British way of life and social structure that had been tied up with the country’s sense of self as an imperial power.
—Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 29 Mar. 2024
Would anyone care enough about a poison-pen letter to perform a DNA test?
—Lucy Sante, The New Yorker, 11 Nov. 2023
Sharrock sees parallels in the film’s theme with today’s social media trolling replacing poison-pen letters.
—Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 8 Sep. 2023
Cite this Entry
“Poison-pen.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/poison-pen. Accessed 19 Jul. 2025.
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