poison-pen letter

• poison pen letter

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poison-pen letter (plural poison-pen letters)

1. (idiomatic) A missive which is malicious, insulting, and/or defamatory toward a person, organization, or point of view, especially one which is unsigned.
   • 1915 December 18, “Poison Pen Writer Released on Bail”, in New York Times, retrieved 25 Aug. 2010, page 7:

     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.

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

     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.

• “poison-pen letter”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.