Meaning of pot boiler | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A creative work of low quality (book, art, etc.), produced merely to earn a living or for profit, as opposed to serious creative expression.
   derogatory, figuratively, mildly
2. A stone used to transfer heat from a fire into a vessel of water, so as to heat the contents.

Equivalents

Examples

“Arists and novelists of a certain stamp joke about ‘pot-boilers’, the name facetiously given to hasty, worthless pictures and books[…]”

“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.”

“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.”

CEFR level