show business
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of show business
First recorded in 1925–30
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.
It’s a big leap from the decades before internet and cable, when network TV news rarely covered show business outside of occasional interviews on their morning shows.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 23, 2026
Documentary filmmakers are, generally speaking, not the glitziest figures in show business.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 10, 2026
Given that your father worked in show business, he may already be familiar with the Smoke House in Burbank, which is just minutes away from Warner Bros.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 9, 2026
Jerry Seinfeld, who presumably knows a thing or two about show business, has said the film industry as currently constituted is kaput, even if Tinseltown has been slow to understand what’s happened in recent decades.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 9, 2025
Roy’s mother kept track of the actress’s soaring career in the show business columns, where it was reported that she’d signed a deal to appear in the next Adam Sandler movie.
From "Hoot" by Carl Hiaasen
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.
