See Also: theatre(medicine)
Noh theatre(encyclopedia)
little theatre(encyclopedia)
theatre(encyclopedia)
theatre(dictionary)
theatre(dictionary)
nom de theatre(dictionary)
civic theatre(encyclopedia)
repertory theatre(encyclopedia)
theatre (as used in expressions)(encyclopedia)

theatre (iou)



theatre noun & adjective. Also *theater. LME.
[Old French t(h)eatre (mod. theatre) or Latin theatrum from Greek theatron, from theasthai behold.]
A. noun.
A building or (esp. in antiquity) a place constructed in the open air, in which dramatic plays or other spectacles can be performed before an audience. LME.
b. A natural bowl or hollow suggesting an ancient Greek or Roman theatre. LME.
Byron Girt by her theatre of hills.
a. A stage or platform on which a play is acted. Long obsolete exc. fig. LME.
fig.: D. Brewster A noble position on the theatre of public life.
b. A platform, dais, or raised stage, used for a public ceremony. obsolete exc. Hist. M16.
c. The audience at a theatre. E17.
In titles: a book giving an overview of a subject; a manual, a treatise. M16-E18.
fig. A place or region where action takes place in public view; the scene or field of action; esp. (also theatre of war) a particular region or each of the separate regions in which a war is fought. L16.
C. Lyell The theatre of violent earthquakes. W. S. Churchill Larger operations..impend in the Middle East theatre.
a. More fully lecture theatre. A room or building for lectures, scientific demonstrations, etc., with seats in tiers for an audience. E17.
b. More fully operating theatre. A room in a hospital specially designed for surgical operations, orig. one for the performance of operations in front of observers. M17.
c. In full picture theatre. A cinema. Now chiefly N. Amer., Austral., & NZ. E20.
Dramatic performance as an art, an institution, or a profession; the stage; the production and performance of plays; the drama of a particular time or place, or of a particular writer. (Freq. with the.) M17.
F. Fergusson The attempt is made to draw the deductions, for Sophocles' theatre and dramaturgy, which the present view of Oedipus implies. B. Bettelheim I was so infatuated with the theater that..I decided to study drama.
b. Theatrical or dramatic entertainment (of a specified quality); action with the quality of drama or theatrical technique; dramatic effect, spectacle, outward show. E20.
A. J. P. Taylor Austrian Baroque civilisation..was theatre, not reality. Listener You have to admit..the Old City is good theatre. Landscape This room is pure theatrea triumph of scenographic architecture.
Phrases: dinner theatre: see DINNER noun. idols of the theatre: see IDOL noun 5b. lecture theatre: see sense 5a above. little theatre: see LITTLE adjective. living theatre: see LIVING ppl adjective. national theatre: see NATIONAL adjective. operating theatre: see sense 5b above. patent theatre: see PATENT adjective 2. picture theatre: see sense 5c above. saloon theatre: see SALOON 4b. theatre-in-the-round [in the round (b) s.v. ROUND noun1] dramatic performance in the round. Theatre of Cruelty a non-verbal form of drama conceived by the French director Antonin Artaud (1896-1948) and intended to communicate a sense of pain, suffering, and evil through the portrayal of extreme physical violence. Theatre of Fact documentary drama. Theatre of the Absurd drama portraying the futility and anguish of human struggle in a senseless and inexplicable world; transf. absurd or ludicrous events. theatre of war: see sense 4 above.
Comb.: theatre club a theatre for which tickets are sold only to members, esp. in order to circumvent censorship; theatre-goer a person who often attends theatres; theatre-land the district of a city in which most of the theatres are situated; theatre-list: of patients scheduled to undergo surgery; theatre nurse a hospital nurse qualified to assist in the operating theatre; theatre organ = CINEMA organ; theatre party: in which the guests, besides being entertained at dinner or supper, are taken to a theatre; theatre seat (a) a seat in a theatre; (b) a tip-up seat of a kind used in theatres; theatre sister a nurse supervising a nursing team in an operating theatre; theatre workshop a theatre company concerned esp. with experimental and unconventional theatrical productions.
b. attrib. or as adjective. Of or pertaining to a theatre of war; esp. designating nuclear weapons for use in a particular region, as opp. to intercontinental or strategic weapons. L20.
theatreless adjective M19.