cinematograph
Americannoun
-
an early movie camera or projector, often a single mechanical device to record and project film.
-
Older Use. a movie theater.
verb (used with or without object)
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
- cinematographic adjective
- cinematographically adverb
Etymology
Origin of cinematograph
First recorded in 1895–1900; from French cinématographe, equivalent to cinémat- (from Greek kīnēmat-, stem of kī́nēma “motion”) + -o- connecting vowel + -graphe noun suffix; -o-, -graph
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.
As a matador dies, his sensory perception radically changes and ends with his last heartbeat in a series of effective repetitions and comparisons: “Maera felt everything getting larger and larger and then smaller and smaller. Then it got larger and larger and larger and then smaller and smaller. Then everything commenced to run faster and faster as when they speed up a cinematograph film. Then he was dead.”
The party would feature presentations on the latest scientific developments, including a newfangled invention called the cinematograph.
From Literature
Not long after his death, a shoemaker’s son named Georges Méliès purchased the Theatre Robert-Houdin and upon seeing a demonstration of the newly invented cinematograph by the Lumière brothers, acquired his own projector.
From New York Times
By the following year in a bleak review of the 1947 box office, editors at Life wrote, "Since the invention of the cinematograph, hardly a movie season has seen the bad pictures so heavily outweigh the good."
From Salon
In 1909, the Cinematograph Act was introduced to try to ensure that all screenings took place in buildings which were safe and suitable for public showings.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
