goldfish bowl

noun

1. Also calledfishbowl a glass bowl, typically spherical, in which fish are kept as pets
2. a place or situation open to observation by onlookers

Idioms and Phrases

A situation affording no privacy, as in Being in a goldfish bowl comes with the senator's job—there's no avoiding it . The glass bowl allowing one to view goldfish from every direction was transferred first, in the 1920s, to a police interrogation room equipped with a one-way mirror. By the mid-1900s the expression was being used more broadly.

Example Sentences

She told Harry that she did not want to live in the goldfish bowl of Royal family life.

From The Daily Beast

LS: How can she keep her own sense of herself in that goldfish bowl?

From The Daily Beast

Then suddenly there sprang into sight on the pedestal a transparent dome the size of a small goldfish bowl.

From Project Gutenberg

He went back to the printshop, feeling like a goldfish bowl.

From Project Gutenberg

Jon was out of his goldfish bowl and striding toward his own igloo adjacent to the service station when a Steel-Blue accosted him.

From Project Gutenberg

Finally he looked away from the heavens to the two Steel-Blues who stood negligently outside the goldfish bowl.

From Project Gutenberg

You had better have one of the guards in the corridor, where Denberg and Semensky are, wear this goldfish bowl, as you call it.

From Project Gutenberg