Meanings
- informaluncountableThe archetypical content of bodice rippers; violent or aggressive sex in romance fiction.
She says that her first novel was born out of a profound love of medieval history, but I fear that what she really loves is historical romance, fantasy, and bodice-rippery.
1990 May, Peter T. Garratt, “Ys OK”, in Interzone, page 662 more examples
A tale of skulduggery, bodice rippery, and shoot-’em-up action unfolds, complete with help from a luscious mistress of disguise who could have stepped right out of a James Bond novel.
2016, The Chemist review, Kirkus Reviews, 15 November 2016, page 188While the genre has generally distanced itself from bodice-rippery, romance authors do continue to play with the look or feel or meaning of non-consensual sex and what’s sometimes called “dubious consent” or “dub-con” sex.
2020, Hannah McCann, Catherine M. Roach, “Sex and sexuality”, in Jayashree Kamblé, Eric Murphy Selinger, Hsu-Ming Teo, editors, The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Romance Fiction, page 422Synonyms: bodice-ripping
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe archetypical content of bodice rippers; violent or aggressive sex in romance fiction.
Origin
Cite this entry
bodice-rippery. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bodice-rippery
“bodice-rippery.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bodice-rippery. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bodice-rippery,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bodice-rippery.
Source: bodice-rippery on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.