poison-pen letter

plural poison-pen letters · alternative poison pen letter

1. idiomaticA missive which is malicious, insulting, and/or defamatory toward a person, organization, or point of view, especially one which is unsigned.

   2 more examples

   Miss Theresa Samuels . . . is accused by the Post Office authorities of sending scurrilous letters to young women whose engagements to marry had been publicly announced. . . . Those who received the poison pen letters were not willing to court the notoriety that would follow the prosecution of the case.

   1915 December 18, “Poison Pen Writer Released on Bail”, in New York Times, retrieved 25 Aug 2010, page 7

   A retired academic was the author of a poison-pen letter campaign that brought 12 years of fear to a North Yorkshire village, a court was told yesterday. Dr James Forster . . . was alleged to have branded one villager a prostitute and sent the 13-year-old daughter of the parish clerk a copy of a pornographic magazine.

   2001 August 1, Nigel Bunyan, “Twelve-year reign of poison pen villager”, in telegraph.co.uk, retrieved 25 Aug 2010