show and tell
- an activity for young children, especially in school, in which each participant produces an object of unusual interest and tells something about it.
- Facetious. any informative presentation or demonstration, as to introduce a new product or divulge and explain a special plan.
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Origin of show and tell
First recorded in 1950–55
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for show-and-tell
Contemporary Examples
My Cold War childhood was like an unending session of Soviet show-and-tell.
Word Origin and History for show-and-tell
n.
elementary school teaching tool, 1948, American English.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with show-and-tell
show and tell
A public presentation or display, as in It was a terrible bore, what with their show and tell of every last detail about their trip around the world. This expression originated in the 1940s to describe a learning exercise for young children, in which each child in a group brings some object to show the others and talks about it.
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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.