peep show
Americannoun
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a display of objects or pictures viewed through a small opening that is usually fitted with a magnifying lens.
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a short, usually erotic or titillating film shown in a coin-operated viewing machine equipped with a projector.
Etymology
Origin of peep show
First recorded in 1850–55
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.
Conru acquired, earlier this month, the former home of the famed peep show for $3 million as a “gift to the city,” he said in an interview Friday.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 19, 2023
Will win: “Succession” won the last time it competed, in 2020, and the antics of the rich and scheming Roy family are as engrossing a peep show as ever.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 31, 2022
Another piece of gritty old New York had gone the way of the Automat and the Times Square peep show.
From New York Times ● Dec. 9, 2010
In its early days, it was the preserve of the travelling circus and the peep show and even now – even inside the most sterile, overpriced Multiplex – there remains something faintly illicit about it.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 17, 2010
I spent my time, therefore, over my peep show and my puppet theatre, and my greatest happiness consisted in collecting bright colored pieces of cloth and silk, which I cut out myself and sewed.
From True Story of My Life by Howitt, Mary (Mary Botham)
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.
