Search the Dictionary

so, any public show; a display of works of art, or of feats of skill, or of oratorical or dramatic ability; as, an exhibition of animals; an exhibition of pictures, statues, etc.; an industrial exhibition.

A composition, as in music, or in the drama, designed to produce effect by its wild irregularity; esp., a musical caricature.

The plot, story, or connected series of events, forming the subject of an epic or dramatic poem. The moral is the first business of the poet; this being formed, he contrives such a design or fable as may be most suitable to the moral. Dryden.

Puppets caused to perform evolutions or dramatic scenes by means of machinery; also, the representations in which they are used.

A low style of comedy; a dramatic composition marked by low humor, generally written with little regard to regularity or method, and abounding with ludicrous incidents and expressions. Farce is that in poetry which "grotesque" is in a picture: the persons and action of a farce are all unnatural, and the manners false.…

Intense publicity for a future event, performed in a showy or excessively dramatic manner suggesting an importance not justified by the event; as, the hype surrounding the superbowl is usually ludicrous. [PJC]

The dramatic practice or purpose characteristic of the writings of Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906), Norwegian poet and dramatist, whose best-known plays deal with conventional hypocrisies, the story in each play thus developing a definite moral problem.

An intricate, complicated plot, as of a drama or work of fiction.

A character or personification in the old English moralities, or moral dramas, having the name sometimes of one vice and sometimes of another. See Vice. Acts old Iniquity, and in the fit Of miming gets the opinion of a wit. B. Jonson.

A form of English drama or play, usually short, merry, and farcical, which succeeded the Moralities or Moral Plays in the transition to the romantic or Elizabethan drama.

A short musical dramatic piece, of a light and pleasing, sometimes a burlesque, character; an interlude introduced between the acts of a play or an opera.

motive Etym: [a translation of G. leitmotif] (Mus.), a guiding theme; in the modern music drama of Wagner, a marked melodic phrase or short passage which always accompanies the reappearance of a certain person, situation, abstract idea, or allusion in the course of the play; a sort of musical label. -- Leading note (M…

nsiderable tine, or to a great length; as, a long series of events; a long debate; a long drama; a long history; a long book.

A dramatic performance, formerly in vogue, in which the actors wore masks and represented mythical or allegorical characters.

A dramatic performance by actors in masks; a mask. See 1st Mask,

A reception, or a musical or dramatic entertainment, held in the daytime. See SoirÉe.

Melodrama.

A kind of drama in which real persons and events were generally represented in a ridiculous manner.

racle monger, an impostor who pretends to work miracles. -- Miracle play, one of the old dramatic entertainments founded on legends of saints and martyrs or (see 2d Mystery, 2) on events related in the Bible.

A dramatic composition for a single performer.