curtain raiser
noun
a short play preceding a main play.
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curtain raiser
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curtain-raiser
curtain-raisernountheatre a short dramatic piece presented before the main play
curtain raiser
Americannoun
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a short play preceding a main play.
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any preliminary event or performance.
curtain-raiser
British
noun
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theatre a short dramatic piece presented before the main play
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any preliminary event
the debate was a curtain-raiser to the election
curtain raiser
Idioms
Etymology
Origin of curtain raiser
First recorded in 1885–90
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.
See Examples For:
After the women opened the season on Saturday with their giant slalom on the Austrian glacier, the men battled poor visibility and welcome wintry weather in their traditional curtain raiser.
From Barron's ● Oct. 26, 2025
The Venice theater presents “Fam and Yam” as a curtain raiser for Harold Pinter’s more substantial and stylistically assured “The Dumb Waiter.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 7, 2022
"It's really exciting. How great that the men are the curtain raiser when normally in most sports it's the other way around?" she says.
From BBC ● Oct. 25, 2022
It’s also a symbolic curtain raiser for the postponed Olympics, and there is no room for error.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 16, 2021
It had placed Archie at a disadvantage for the first time as assigner because Rollo had only been the curtain raiser, a bit of amusement Obie had arranged to enliven the proceedings.
From "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier
Fellow relegated side Wolves will play the league's curtain-raiser against Blackburn at Molineux on Friday, 14 August.
From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2026
On Tuesday a protest blocked an avenue leading to the Estadio Azteca, where Mexico will face South Africa in the curtain-raiser.
From Barron's ● Jun. 10, 2026
The second season served as a curtain-raiser for Kaitlyn Dever and her character, Abby.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 8, 2026
WASHINGTON—Few things that happened onstage at the Kennedy Center on Friday afternoon could have overshadowed the official curtain-raiser for the world’s largest sporting event.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 5, 2025
Is it too late to rehearse that curtain-raiser?
From The Jessica Letters: An Editor's Romance by More, Paul Elmer
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.
