peep show

noun

1. a display of objects or pictures viewed through a small opening that is usually fitted with a magnifying lens.

2. a short, usually erotic or titillating film shown in a coin-operated viewing machine equipped with a projector.

Word History and Origins

Origin of peep show¹

First recorded in 1850–55

Example Sentences

Colman, who burst into my awareness in the 2003 TV cringe comedy “Peep Show,” is fantastic throwing jabs around in costume designer PC Williams’ nouveau hipster wardrobe of bold, baggy lines.

From Los Angeles Times

Armstrong, who cut his teeth in children's TV before writing for shows such as The Thick of It and going on to co-create series like Peep Show and Fresh Meat, said the inspiration for Mountainhead came from listening to podcasts.

From BBC

Mitchell, best known for his work on “Peep Show,” is both extraordinarily entertaining and moving in his performance of true introversion, a personality type that’s only recently become more commonly understood.

From Salon

In the wonderful, Cambridge-set “Ludwig,” David Mitchell, best known here for “Peep Show,” “Upstart Crow” and as an irascible team captain on the panel show “Would I Lie to You?,” plays John Taylor, a professional inventor of puzzles — awkward, timid, with no social life and a disconnect from and disdain for modern times that Mitchell’s own self-presentation sometimes suggests.

From Los Angeles Times

British polymath David Mitchell, best known here for “Peep Show” and as a hilariously irascible team captain on “Would I Lie to You?,” stars as a crossword puzzle maker whose police detective twin brother disappears; he takes on his identity in order to crack the case — and other cases as the series continues on its episodic-within-a-long-arc path.

From Los Angeles Times