First recorded in 1865–70
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Philip Breen, who is responsible for the adaptation, first approached Mullan a number of years ago about an eight-hour passion play he envisaged with a community chorus.
From BBC ● Mar. 21, 2025
The Iranian passion play is a recurring motif, both on the stage and in the streets.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 1, 2022
“But we have an endless desire to bring our passion play back to the stage and we are highly motivated.”
From Seattle Times ● May 7, 2022
It is a testament to Forman’s fascination with the foibles and sublimities of the human spirit, and how cunning and tenderness, along with enduring passion, play out against our cruelties and better angels.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2018
The result was a series of entertainments varying from a strawberry festival to the "passion play" illustrated.
From The Tangled Threads by Porter, Eleanor H. (Eleanor Hodgman)
There are also plans for more offbeat repertoire, including Bohuslav Martinu’s “The Greek Passion,” which tells the story of a Greek village staging a Passion play, in a production led by the conductor Maxime Pascal.
From New York Times ● Dec. 9, 2022
"Superstar" is structured similarly to a traditional Christian Passion play, depicting Jesus' final days.
From Salon ● Apr. 16, 2022
It was the fifty-eighth anniversary of the operation, which ended in catastrophe; the annual commemoration has become a kind of Miami Passion play.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 29, 2019
He went on to form a production company that would produce the L.A. premiere of “Corpus Christi,” Terrence McNally’s gay Passion play, and other shows in small theaters.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 7, 2017
Here we have a typical instance of a Passion play of the olden time maintaining itself.
From Education: How Old The New by Walsh, James J.
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.
