Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A very interesting, exciting, or suspenseful book, usually a novel.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A written work, usually a novel, which is sufficiently interesting or suspenseful to keep the reader 'turning the pages'.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • It's that oft-cited but very rare species of novel we call a page-turner, and it brilliantly achieves this because Drvenkar knows how to use all the tools at his disposal, to excellent effect.

    NYT > Home Page By OLEN STEINHAUER 2011

  • It's that oft-cited but very rare species of novel we call a page-turner, and it brilliantly achieves this because Drvenkar knows how to use all the tools at his disposal, to excellent effect.

    NYT > Home Page By OLEN STEINHAUER 2011

  • I have to congratulate Ms. Allred - it's one of the few legal documents I can describe as a page-turner.

    NYT > Home Page By JAMES B. STEWART 2012

  • I have to congratulate Ms. Allred - it's one of the few legal documents I can describe as a page-turner.

    NYT > Home Page By JAMES B. STEWART 2012

  • Pretty much anybody can write a "page-turner" that has juicy scenes in bedrooms and dark alleys on every other page, but a super predictable plot, one-dimensional characters and names that sound like they came from soap operas or pornos make those books ultimately boring.

    Demetria Irwin: 'Urban Fiction' I Actually Like? Demetria Irwin 2012

  • A book about two sisters that juggles the present, the past, and a novel within a novel -- and is always a page-turner despite the deliberately fractured storytelling.

    Dave Astor: Fifteen of This Millennium's Top Novels Dave Astor 2011

  • ‘Love, Revenge & Buttered Scones’ – a real page-turner that will make you very happy.

    Bookaholic « Tales from the Reading Room 2010

  • A book about two sisters that juggles the present, the past, and a novel within a novel -- and is always a page-turner despite the deliberately fractured storytelling.

    Dave Astor: Fifteen of This Millennium's Top Novels Dave Astor 2011

  • But if the story is good enough, it tells itself, and Frankel's in particular could be a page-turner.

    Frankel carries hype and hopes of racing in 2,000 Guineas 2011

  • The story of a master builder with a dream of building a cathedral in England in the 12th century, it's a riveting page-turner for all of its 997 pages.

    Best of 2009 2010

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