show-boxn.
/ˈʃəʊbɒks/, U.S. /ˈʃoʊˌbɑks/ Now historical.† 2. colloquial. A theatre. Obsolete.
1. A portable box containing a sequence of pictures viewed through a magnifying lens or hole; a peep show. Also: a box forming a small stage for a puppet show or other display.In quots. 1729 and a1796 figurative.
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society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > optical shows > [noun] > peep-show > box containing
show-box1729
1729 Daily Post 31 Oct. Reasons for a Bath Journey; the Tour; Prospect of Bath describ'd; what it is most like; a Hive; a Pipkin, or a Shew-box.
1730 Daily Post 5 Jan. How a Coronation looks in our Shew-box.
1748 Lady Luxborough Let. 28 Apr. in Lett. to W. Shenstone (1775) 19 But were you to present me with the Views of the Leasowes, I own I should not put them into my show-box without pain.
a1796 R. Burns Poems & Songs (1968) I. 468 Human nature's his Show-box.
1827 Age 5 Aug. 70/3 Something after the fashion of Punch and le Diable in the show-box.
1856 Magician's Show Box & Other Stories 31 The girl peeped into the show box.
1903 Punch 21 Jan. 36/1 There is a volcanic disturbance inside the show-box, a storm among the green baize curtains, and an unshaven man in dirty shirt-sleeves breaks out into the open.
1996 B. Redford Venice & Grand Tour v. 111 At such places as Southwark Fair,..the ‘show box’ was a staple entertainment.
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society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > the theatre or the stage > a theatre > [noun]
houseOE
playhouseOE
playing-placea1375
showplace1560
show hall1562
theatre?1577
theatre-house1578
cockpita1616
stage-house1638
show house1674
saloon1747
theatrum1786
spellkenc1800
hippodrome1811
spell1819
show-box1822
1822 London Mag. July 39/2 Two [plays] at the Show-box Royal, Drury Lane.
1830 Fraser's Mag. Feb. 127/1 Garrick, with his little show-box in Drury Lane.
1842 C. Dickens Amer. Notes I. 117 The third [theatre], the Olympic, is a tiny show-box for vaudevilles and burlesques.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2017; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1729