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bear garden

noun
  1. a place for keeping or exhibiting bears, especially (formerly) for bearbaiting.
  2. a place or scene of tumult.
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Origin of bear garden

First recorded in 1590–1600
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for bear garden

Historical Examples of bear garden

  • How could you have anything done properly in such a bear-garden?

    The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete

    Emile Zola

  • After dinner, he and I and my wife to the Bear-Garden, to see a prize fought there.

  • This Pembroke, who loved a bear-garden, was the seventh earl of that title.

    The Town

    Leigh Hunt

  • Now then, he said severely, is this a club or a bear-garden?

  • Sir, said I, you indeed behave as if you were in a bear-garden.

British Dictionary definitions for bear garden

bear garden

noun
  1. (formerly) a place where bears were exhibited and where bear-baiting took place
  2. a place or scene of tumult and disorder
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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