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medicine show

American  

noun

  1. a traveling troupe, especially in the late 1800s, offering entertainment in order to attract customers for the patent medicines or purported cures proffered for sale.

Etymology

Origin of medicine show

An Americanism dating back to 1935–40

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.

Dennison grew up performing in her parents’ traveling medicine show.

From Fox News • Nov. 2, 2021

A girl with a baby has bad luck with the men in her medicine show.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 6, 2019

He played acoustic guitar and sang in a deep, guttural voice that seemed to have come from a traveling medicine show, vaudeville or the back alleys of old New Orleans.

From Washington Post • May 30, 2019

Barnum, who both spent time early in their careers on the rickety stage of the medicine show.

From Forbes • Sep. 10, 2014

A trapper, the pitchman of a medicine show.

From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead

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.