chap-book
(ˈtʃæpbʊk)
[f. chap in chapman + book.]
A modern name applied by book-collectors and others to specimens of the popular literature which was formerly circulated by itinerant dealers or chapmen, consisting chiefly of small pamphlets of popular tales, ballads, tracts, etc.
[Not in Todd 1818.]
| 1824 Dibdin Libr. Comp. 238 It is a chap-book, printed in rather a neat black letter. 1832 in Webster. 1852 C. M. Yonge Cameos (1877) I. xxxiv. 292 A hero of the popular chap-books of old times. 1882 J. Ashton Chap-Bks. 18th C. in Athenæum 2 Sept. 302/1 A great mass of chap-books, such as ‘Jack the Giant Killer’, ‘Long Tom’, ‘Mother Shipton’. |