Romeo and Juliet

American  

noun

1. a tragedy (produced between 1591 and 1596) by Shakespeare.

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Romeo and Juliet Cultural  

1. A tragedy by William Shakespeare about two “star-crossed lovers” (see also star-crossed lovers) whose passionate love for each other ends in death because of the senseless feud between their families. The line “Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?” is well known.

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Figuratively, a “Romeo” is an amorous young man.

Example Sentences

Mescal had done the usual “Romeo and Juliet” and “Macbeth” as a drama student, but he says it seemed obligatory for an aspiring actor to love Shakespeare.

From The Wall Street Journal

Here is Scottish newsreader Mary Marquis as Juliet in a 1955 production of Romeo and Juliet.

From BBC

Sam Heughan stars in Romeo and Juliet at the RCS in 1999, alongside Alana Hood.

From BBC

She went on to star in a youth production of Romeo and Juliet at London's Young Vic Theatre when she was 15, but wasn't sure if she could make a career of it.

From BBC

This jukebox musical imagines with unstinting originality a scenario in which the doomed heroine of William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” doesn’t die at the end of the play.

From Los Angeles Times