stage direction

noun

an instruction written into the script of a play, indicating stage actions, movements of performers, or production requirements.

the art or technique of a stage director.

Nearby words

stag's-horn coral, stag-horn calculus, stage, stage brace, stage business, stage direction, stage director, stage door, stage effect, stage fright, stage left

Origin of stage direction

First recorded in 1780–90

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for stage direction

I had said all I had to say, and it seemed to me that about here the stage-direction "exit" was written in my part.
My Man Jeeves|P. G. Wodehouse
In the stage-direction the last four words are omitted Remorse.
The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge|Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The 1st quarto has here the stage-direction, "She fals vpon her bed within the Curtaines."
Shakespeare's Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet|William Shakespeare
Pope destroyed the collocation by transferring the stage-direction to a point some dozen lines later.
Shakespearean Tragedy|A. C. Bradley

The 1st quarto has here the stage-direction, "Tibalt under Romeos arme thrusts Mercutio in and flyes;" which some modern eds.
Shakespeare's Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet|William Shakespeare

British Dictionary definitions for stage direction

stage direction

noun theatre

an instruction to an actor or director, written into the script of a play

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Culture definitions for stage direction

stage direction

Part of the script of a play that tells the actors how they are to move or to speak their lines. Enter, exit, and exeunt are stage directions.