penny plain
adjective British
Plain and simple: a penny plain version that takes away some of the character from the piece...
- West saw the potential of the new craze and responded by producing sheets of characters, which he sold at ‘a penny plain and twopenny coloured’: ‘juvenile drama’ was born.
- Some chapters in this new collection are penny plain, like the folksy title essay which seems to be aimed at softening or humanising the famously macho caste of philosophers.
- If the tinsel print was of the ‘penny plain’ variety, the hobbyist took the portrait sheet home and painted in his own colors.
Origin
Mid 19th century: with reference to prints of characters sold for toy theatres, costing one penny for black-and-white ones, and two pennies for coloured ones.
- public enemy number one
- public enterprise
- public eye
- public figure
- public good
- public health
- public holiday
- public house
- public house sign
- public housing
- public intellectual
- public interest
- public interest immunity
- public interest immunity certificate
- publicise
- publicism
- publicist
- publicistic
- publicitor
- mixture
- mixture stop
- mixty-maxty
- mixum-gatherum
- mix-um gather-um
- mix-up