Definition of "penny-a-liner" []

• One who supplies writing to public journals for a set fee per line of text; a poor writer for hire; a hack. (noun)

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• "Mall to come over and speak to poor Brown, the young penny-a-liner."
• "Sir Marmaduke, ‘if I were to go and leave my girl as it were in the hands of a penny-a-liner.’"
• "Sir Marmaduke, in speaking of Stanbury after this, would constantly call him a penny-a-liner, thinking that the contamination of the penny communicated itself to all transactions of the Daily Record."