menagerie
[muh-naj-uh-ree, -nazh-]
- a collection of wild or unusual animals, especially for exhibition.
- a place where they are kept or exhibited.
- an unusual and varied group of people.
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Origin of menagerie
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for menagerie
Contemporary Examples
A pile of straw right by the menagerie lit on fire, and reached the tent in seconds.
Guangdong has long been known for its menagerie of exotic ingredients.
What we get is a menagerie of grotesques, which seems to be a Ryan Murphy staple.
We sat in front of a modernist gas fireplace as a menagerie of tourists came and went about us.
A year later, the press speculated that Bubbles died when a fire tore through Jackson's Santa Barbara menagerie.
Historical Examples
They had not been herded together like animals in a menagerie, as in Colonel Corkran's day.
It Happened in EgyptC. N. Williamson
Are you thinking we are live kangaroos escaped from a menagerie?
The ChanningsMrs. Henry Wood
Does she still keep a menagerie for sick dogs and lost cats?
The ManxmanHall Caine
Then to a meek huérfanita, feeding her menagerie, I made oration.
Jane Journeys OnRuth Comfort Mitchell
"Your friends sound like a menagerie," remarked Zeb, uneasily.
Dorothy and the Wizard in OzL. Frank Baum
menagerie
- a collection of wild animals kept for exhibition
- the place where such animals are housed
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Word Origin
C18: from French: household management, which formerly included care of domestic animals. See ménage
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for menagerie
n.
"collection of wild animals kept in captivity," 1712, from French ménagerie "housing for domestic animals" (16c.), from Old French manage (see menage).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper