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bread and circuses
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noun
something, as extravagant entertainment, offered as an expedient means of pacifying discontent or diverting attention from a source of grievance.
QUIZ
THINGAMABOB OR THINGUMMY: CAN YOU DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE US AND UK TERMS IN THIS QUIZ?
Do you know the difference between everyday US and UK terminology? Test yourself with this quiz on words that differ across the Atlantic.
Question 1 of 7
In the UK, COTTON CANDY is more commonly known asâŠ
Origin of bread and circuses
1910â15; translation of Latin pÄnis et circÄnsÄs; from a remark by the Roman satirist Juvenal on the limited desires of the Roman populace
Words nearby bread and circuses
bread, bread and butter, bread-and-butter letter, bread-and-butter model, bread-and-butter pickle, bread and circuses, bread and honey, breadbasket, breadboard, breadbox, breadcrumb
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Cultural definitions for bread and circuses
bread and circuses
A phrase used by a Roman writer to deplore the declining heroism of Romans after the Roman Republic ceased to exist and the Roman Empire began: âTwo things only the people anxiously desire â bread and circuses.â The government kept the Roman populace happy by distributing free food and staging huge spectacles. (See Colosseum.)
notes for bread and circuses
âBread and circusesâ has become a convenient general term for government policies that seek short-term solutions to public unrest.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.