Meaning of bodice-ripping | Babel Free

Definitions

A lustful scene of seduction and violent or forcefully initiated sex.

uncountable, usually

Examples

“We had a long debate about the ethics of bodice-ripping—who was allowed to rip and who got ripped.”

“The Dutch sado-masochism, represented first by the Vroom women's attempts at seducing Mason (through multiple bodice-rippings and invitations to spank) for the purpose of reproducing slaves, is further accentuated in a similarly contrived orgy -- described as ritualistic opportunity to transcend societal norms and delineations -- where "Lust is schedul'd, splashing outside the Church-drawn boundaries of marriage, as across racial lines."”

“All unknowing, innocent as the heroine of a Barbara Cartland Regency romance (at least for the first fifteen pages before the initial bodice-ripping), I came to Hollywood in 1962 with a few published books to my credit and the ingenuous naivete that led me to believe that merely by being the best writer the medium had ever seen, I could raise the level of what went out across the coaxial cable.”

“Naomi Klein is right to call Atlas Shrugged 'pulp' – there is plenty of bodice-ripping in its romantic sections, and, very significantly, there are never any babies produced.”

CEFR level