"sideshow" meaning in English

See sideshow in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-sideshow.wav Forms: sideshows [plural]
Etymology: From side + show. Etymology templates: {{af|en|side|show}} side + show Head templates: {{en-noun}} sideshow (plural sideshows)
  1. A minor attraction at a larger event such as a circus, fair or music festival. Categories (topical): Circus Translations (minor attraction at a larger event): Nebenattraktion [feminine] (German), Beiprogramm [neuter] (German), Nebenschauplatz [masculine] (German)
    Sense id: en-sideshow-en-noun-VBEe37I1 Disambiguation of Circus: 67 13 21 Disambiguation of 'minor attraction at a larger event': 70 11 19
  2. (figurative) An incidental spectacle that diverts attention from a larger concern. Tags: figuratively
    Sense id: en-sideshow-en-noun-9xIcPHBW
  3. (US slang) An incident in which drivers block traffic to perform stunts like donuts and burnouts for an extended period of time. Tags: US, slang
    Sense id: en-sideshow-en-noun-jD3uBm3H Categories (other): American English, English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with German translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 15 16 70 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 17 17 67 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 18 15 67 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 14 15 71 Disambiguation of Terms with German translations: 18 17 65
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: side show Derived forms: sideshow alley [Australia]

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "word": "sideshow alley"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "side",
        "3": "show"
      },
      "expansion": "side + show",
      "name": "af"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From side + show.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "sideshows",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "sideshow (plural sideshows)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "67 13 21",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Circus",
          "orig": "en:Circus",
          "parents": [
            "Entertainment",
            "Theater",
            "Culture",
            "Art",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "1999 November 8, Frank Hayes, The Back Page: The main event, Computerworld, page 86,\nAnd IT people dismiss IT′s impact because, hey, we like being a sideshow to the real action."
        },
        {
          "text": "1999, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Year Book, Australia, Number 81, page 349,\nOther recreation services, including amusement parks or arcades, sideshows, circuses and agricultural shows, accounted for another 666 businesses. These businesses employed 10,318 persons and a further 3,518 volunteers."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002, Steve Evans, Ron Middlebrook, Cowboy Guitars, page 146:",
          "text": "In Australia he busked (singing on street corners), steeplejacked, was a drover and sheep shearer, did motor bike stunts in sideshows and even painted the Sydney Harbor^([sic]) Bridge.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005, Joe Nickell, Secrets of the Sideshows, page 126:",
          "text": "They taught the twins to play saxophone and transferred them from the sideshow to vaudeville.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006, Lynda Mannik, Canadian Indian Cowboys in Australia: Representation, Rodeo, and the RCMP at the Royal Easter Show, 1939, page 13:",
          "text": "Entertainment features and sideshows enhanced attendance.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Charles Rawlings-Way, Meg Worby, Lindsay Brown, Paul Harding, Central Australia: Adelaide to Darwin, Lonely Planet, page 63:",
          "text": "Don′t miss the rusty relics dredged up from the original pier, and the spooky old sideshow machines.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "text": "1972 October 14, Henry Johnston, U.S. Tune Wins Rio Festival, Billboard, page 64,\nSideshows for foreign guests included one provided by Philips manager Andre Midani with his chief recording artists including Chico Buarque, Jorge Ben, Gal Costa Quintato, and Violado."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A minor attraction at a larger event such as a circus, fair or music festival."
      ],
      "id": "en-sideshow-en-noun-VBEe37I1",
      "links": [
        [
          "minor",
          "minor"
        ],
        [
          "attraction",
          "attraction"
        ],
        [
          "circus",
          "circus"
        ],
        [
          "fair",
          "fair"
        ],
        [
          "music",
          "music"
        ],
        [
          "festival",
          "festival"
        ]
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "70 11 19",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "minor attraction at a larger event",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "Nebenattraktion"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "70 11 19",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "minor attraction at a larger event",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "Beiprogramm"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "70 11 19",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "minor attraction at a larger event",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "Nebenschauplatz"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1997, Frank Stilwell, “One Nation For Whom?”, in Michael Costa, Mark Hearn, editors, Reforming Australia's Unions: Insights from Southland Magazine, page 244:",
          "text": "Far from learning from the failures of ‘economic rationalism,’ the Liberals want us to swallow more of the snake oil medicine while diverting our attention to the consumption tax sideshow.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013 July 19, Kristen Johnston, “Turning Addiction Into a Sideshow”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
          "text": "Even the reality shows focused on addiction, like “Intervention,” “Rehab With Dr. Drew” (thankfully canceled) or that show where people have bizarre addictions like eating chalk or scouring powder, have done almost nothing to educate Americans. All they’ve really achieved is keeping addiction an oddity, a sideshow.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2016 February 4, Nicholas Watt, quoting Alan Johnson, “Migrant benefits limit is sideshow in EU debate, says Alan Johnson”, in The Guardian:",
          "text": "An emergency brake to limit in-work benefits for EU migrants is a “sideshow” that will fail to reduce the number of arrivals to the UK, Alan Johnson has said.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An incidental spectacle that diverts attention from a larger concern."
      ],
      "id": "en-sideshow-en-noun-9xIcPHBW",
      "links": [
        [
          "incidental",
          "incidental"
        ],
        [
          "spectacle",
          "spectacle"
        ],
        [
          "divert",
          "divert"
        ],
        [
          "attention",
          "attention"
        ],
        [
          "concern",
          "concern"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative) An incidental spectacle that diverts attention from a larger concern."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "15 16 70",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "17 17 67",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "18 15 67",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "14 15 71",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "18 17 65",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with German translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2009, Mickey Hess, editor, Hip Hop in America: A Regional Guide, volume 1, ABC-CLIO, →ISBN, page 274:",
          "text": "The spontaneous street party is the center of Oakland's recently developing Hyphy culture, but has a long history in Oakland car culture and hip hop. A sideshow is essentially a spontaneous street party in which one might “ghostride the whip” (get out while driving), “gas brake dip,” or even “scrape” (spin donuts in the middle of the street).",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2021 January, Kim McLane Wardlaw writing for the Ninth Circuit, Villanueva v. Cleveland:",
          "text": "During their patrol, the Officers found an approximately twenty-car sideshow taking place in the Santa Fe Springs Swap Meet parking lot.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 September 4, Bradley Berman, “In Street Takeovers, Young Stunt Drivers Outmaneuver the Police”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
          "text": "Gov. Gavin Newsom of California signed a law in October threatening a six-month suspension of a driver’s license for participating in a sideshow, even as a spectator.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 April 7, Kate Conger, Shawn Hubler, “Stabbing of Cash App Creator Raises Alarm, and Claims of ‘Lawless’ San Francisco”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
          "text": "But a bodega owner in the area said that crime seemed to be rising, and that at night, the neighborhood became a backdrop for drug use and occasional sideshows.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An incident in which drivers block traffic to perform stunts like donuts and burnouts for an extended period of time."
      ],
      "id": "en-sideshow-en-noun-jD3uBm3H",
      "links": [
        [
          "donut",
          "donut"
        ],
        [
          "burnouts",
          "burnout"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US slang) An incident in which drivers block traffic to perform stunts like donuts and burnouts for an extended period of time."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-sideshow.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/50/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-sideshow.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-sideshow.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/50/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-sideshow.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-sideshow.wav.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "side show"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "sideshow",
    "sideshow (automobile exhibition)"
  ],
  "word": "sideshow"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English compound terms",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Terms with German translations",
    "en:Circus"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "word": "sideshow alley"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "side",
        "3": "show"
      },
      "expansion": "side + show",
      "name": "af"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From side + show.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "sideshows",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "sideshow (plural sideshows)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "1999 November 8, Frank Hayes, The Back Page: The main event, Computerworld, page 86,\nAnd IT people dismiss IT′s impact because, hey, we like being a sideshow to the real action."
        },
        {
          "text": "1999, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Year Book, Australia, Number 81, page 349,\nOther recreation services, including amusement parks or arcades, sideshows, circuses and agricultural shows, accounted for another 666 businesses. These businesses employed 10,318 persons and a further 3,518 volunteers."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002, Steve Evans, Ron Middlebrook, Cowboy Guitars, page 146:",
          "text": "In Australia he busked (singing on street corners), steeplejacked, was a drover and sheep shearer, did motor bike stunts in sideshows and even painted the Sydney Harbor^([sic]) Bridge.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005, Joe Nickell, Secrets of the Sideshows, page 126:",
          "text": "They taught the twins to play saxophone and transferred them from the sideshow to vaudeville.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006, Lynda Mannik, Canadian Indian Cowboys in Australia: Representation, Rodeo, and the RCMP at the Royal Easter Show, 1939, page 13:",
          "text": "Entertainment features and sideshows enhanced attendance.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Charles Rawlings-Way, Meg Worby, Lindsay Brown, Paul Harding, Central Australia: Adelaide to Darwin, Lonely Planet, page 63:",
          "text": "Don′t miss the rusty relics dredged up from the original pier, and the spooky old sideshow machines.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "text": "1972 October 14, Henry Johnston, U.S. Tune Wins Rio Festival, Billboard, page 64,\nSideshows for foreign guests included one provided by Philips manager Andre Midani with his chief recording artists including Chico Buarque, Jorge Ben, Gal Costa Quintato, and Violado."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A minor attraction at a larger event such as a circus, fair or music festival."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "minor",
          "minor"
        ],
        [
          "attraction",
          "attraction"
        ],
        [
          "circus",
          "circus"
        ],
        [
          "fair",
          "fair"
        ],
        [
          "music",
          "music"
        ],
        [
          "festival",
          "festival"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1997, Frank Stilwell, “One Nation For Whom?”, in Michael Costa, Mark Hearn, editors, Reforming Australia's Unions: Insights from Southland Magazine, page 244:",
          "text": "Far from learning from the failures of ‘economic rationalism,’ the Liberals want us to swallow more of the snake oil medicine while diverting our attention to the consumption tax sideshow.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013 July 19, Kristen Johnston, “Turning Addiction Into a Sideshow”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
          "text": "Even the reality shows focused on addiction, like “Intervention,” “Rehab With Dr. Drew” (thankfully canceled) or that show where people have bizarre addictions like eating chalk or scouring powder, have done almost nothing to educate Americans. All they’ve really achieved is keeping addiction an oddity, a sideshow.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2016 February 4, Nicholas Watt, quoting Alan Johnson, “Migrant benefits limit is sideshow in EU debate, says Alan Johnson”, in The Guardian:",
          "text": "An emergency brake to limit in-work benefits for EU migrants is a “sideshow” that will fail to reduce the number of arrivals to the UK, Alan Johnson has said.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An incidental spectacle that diverts attention from a larger concern."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "incidental",
          "incidental"
        ],
        [
          "spectacle",
          "spectacle"
        ],
        [
          "divert",
          "divert"
        ],
        [
          "attention",
          "attention"
        ],
        [
          "concern",
          "concern"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative) An incidental spectacle that diverts attention from a larger concern."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English slang",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2009, Mickey Hess, editor, Hip Hop in America: A Regional Guide, volume 1, ABC-CLIO, →ISBN, page 274:",
          "text": "The spontaneous street party is the center of Oakland's recently developing Hyphy culture, but has a long history in Oakland car culture and hip hop. A sideshow is essentially a spontaneous street party in which one might “ghostride the whip” (get out while driving), “gas brake dip,” or even “scrape” (spin donuts in the middle of the street).",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2021 January, Kim McLane Wardlaw writing for the Ninth Circuit, Villanueva v. Cleveland:",
          "text": "During their patrol, the Officers found an approximately twenty-car sideshow taking place in the Santa Fe Springs Swap Meet parking lot.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 September 4, Bradley Berman, “In Street Takeovers, Young Stunt Drivers Outmaneuver the Police”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
          "text": "Gov. Gavin Newsom of California signed a law in October threatening a six-month suspension of a driver’s license for participating in a sideshow, even as a spectator.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 April 7, Kate Conger, Shawn Hubler, “Stabbing of Cash App Creator Raises Alarm, and Claims of ‘Lawless’ San Francisco”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
          "text": "But a bodega owner in the area said that crime seemed to be rising, and that at night, the neighborhood became a backdrop for drug use and occasional sideshows.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An incident in which drivers block traffic to perform stunts like donuts and burnouts for an extended period of time."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "donut",
          "donut"
        ],
        [
          "burnouts",
          "burnout"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US slang) An incident in which drivers block traffic to perform stunts like donuts and burnouts for an extended period of time."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-sideshow.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/50/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-sideshow.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-sideshow.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/50/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-sideshow.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-sideshow.wav.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "side show"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "minor attraction at a larger event",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "Nebenattraktion"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "minor attraction at a larger event",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "Beiprogramm"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "minor attraction at a larger event",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "Nebenschauplatz"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "sideshow",
    "sideshow (automobile exhibition)"
  ],
  "word": "sideshow"
}

Download raw JSONL data for sideshow meaning in English (7.2kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-28 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-11-21 using wiktextract (65a6e81 and 0dbea76). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.