before 1000; Middle English delle, Old English dell; akin to dale
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The work features Punchinello, the hook-nosed, humpbacked clowns who were some of the stock characters taken from the Commedia dell' Arte - an early form of professional theatre.
From BBC • Oct. 11, 2021
The lively songs of the mounte banks are cribbed from some old com media dell' arte notes, except for a pert little tarantella by Musical Director Gino Marinuzzi.
From Time Magazine Archive
With reckless energy and a wickedly contemporary show-biz savvy, this clown prince is putting the art back in commedia dell' arte.
From Time Magazine Archive
Everything was spic & span at No. 2 Piazza dell' Esquilino in Rome last week.
From Time Magazine Archive
With such a record of contempt and disesteem and outlawry, the Commedia dell' Arte was always sinking back into the slime from which it rose.
From The Memoirs of Count Carlo Gozzi; Volume the First by Gozzi, Carlo
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
