Russian doll

British

noun

Also called: matryoshka. matrioshka. any of a set of hollow wooden figures, each of which splits in half to contain the next smallest figure, down to the smallest

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Showcasing an all-star cast that features Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley and Richard Oyoade, it’s a whimsical, obsessively designed miniature epic with a Russian doll structure.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 19, 2024

I have no doubt some viewers will experience "Asteroid City" as a maddening Russian doll nested with clever but pointless gags, or as arbitrary and formless.

From Salon • Jun. 24, 2023

The isolation of miscarriage inside of the isolation of a pandemic was an awful Russian doll, but reading her story offered a sense of intimacy.

From New York Times • Nov. 22, 2022

It’s like a Russian doll... but for video games.

From The Verge • Jun. 8, 2022

"If the bill doesn't help reveal who the real people are behind that company, we will still not have unpacked the Russian doll".

From BBC • Mar. 3, 2022

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023