curtain raiser
noun
a short play preceding a main play.
Showing results for curtain raiser.
Search instead for
curtain raising.
Jump To:
-
curtain raiser
-
curtain-raiser
curtain-raisernountheatre a short dramatic piece presented before the main play
curtain raiser
Americannoun
-
a short play preceding a main play.
-
any preliminary event or performance.
curtain-raiser
British
noun
-
theatre a short dramatic piece presented before the main play
-
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
"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 an apt curtain raiser for a 1994-95 season in which newness and sameness glom together indistinguishably, but “thirtysomething” glistened from its inception with a seductive uniqueness that this latest series does not initially share.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2022
That fall, Rivian held a public curtain raiser in Normal for its $70,000 trucks, which it says can accelerate to 60 miles per hour in about three seconds.
From New York Times ● Sep. 13, 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
He noted Lee Greenwood, whose song God Bless the USA is the curtain-raiser at Trump rallies, would introduce him and tenor Christopher Macchio would also sing at the event.
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
She had made her debut on the stage several years ago in a curtain-raiser of mine, my first and last attempt at playwriting "on my own."
From Lord John in New York by Williamson, A. M. (Alice Muriel)
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.
