coulisse

American  

[koo-lees] / kuˈlis /

noun

1. a timber or the like having a groove for guiding a sliding panel.

2. Theater.

   1. the space between two wing flats, leg drops, or the like.

   2. any space or area backstage.

   3. wing flat.

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coulisse British  

/ kuːˈliːs /

noun

1. Also called: cullis.  a timber member grooved to take a sliding panel, such as a sluicegate, portcullis, or stage flat

2. 1. a flat piece of scenery situated in the wings of a theatre; wing flat

   2. a space between wing flats

3. part of the Paris Bourse where unofficial securities are traded Compare parquet

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Etymology

Origin of coulisse

1810–20; < French: groove, something that slides in a groove; see portcullis

Example Sentences

Hovering somewhere in the coulisse of these performances, there seems to be an anxiety about authenticity.

From The Guardian • Aug. 9, 2012

I to be married out of hand like a laundress of the coulisse!

From The Heart of Denise and Other Tales by Levett-Yeats, S. (Sidney)

The hardest of the trail to decipher was where it was written in condensed shorthand across a mountain slide or coulisse of naked granite boulders.

From Hunting in Many Lands The Book of the Boone and Crockett Club by Various

A few days later the July liquidation, in the official market as well as in the coulisse, was postponed until the end of August, which action proved the necessity of a period of grace.

From New York Times Current History: The European War from the Beginning to March 1915, Vol 1, No. 2 Who Began the War, and Why? by Various

From the powerful draught of air, which, coming from behind the scenes, may well be termed vent de coulisse, the room is as cold as the season.

From Paris as It Was and as It Is by Blagdon, Francis W.