VAUDEVILLE • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Vaudeville

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/vˈɑdvɪl/ Listen

noun

Vaudeville n. (Written also vaudevil)

A kind of song of a lively character, frequently embodying a satire on some person or event, sung to a familiar air in couplets with a refrain; a street song; a topical song.

A theatrical piece, usually a comedy, the dialogue of which is intermingled with light or satirical songs, set to familiar airs. "The early vaudeville, which is the forerunner of the opera bouffe, was light, graceful, and piquant."

A variety show when performed live in a theater (see above); as, to play in vaudeville; a vaudeville actor.

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Etymology of 'Vaudeville'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Vaudeville" Quotes from Famous Books

... to-day is of little use in politics or business. What's she best in, anyway?—men make the best cooks, milliners, nurses, housekeepers, stenographers, clerks, hairdressers and launderers. About the only job left that a woman can beat a man in is female impersonator in vaudeville." ...

— The Gentle Grafter • O. Henry

... are usually very lean men, almost skeletons. As they wear no clothing, one can count their bones through the skin, but their muscles and sinews are remarkably strong and supple. They twist themselves into the most extraordinary shapes. No professional contortionist upon the vaudeville stage can compare with these religious mendicants, who give exhibitions in the open air, or in the porticos of the temples in honor of some god and call it worship. They acquire the faculty of doing their feats by long and tedious training under the instruction of older fakirs, ...

— Modern India • William Eleroy Curtis

... of women upon the stage, and their increased attendance at theatres has somewhat modified the nature of the performance; even the "refined vaudeville" now begins to show the influence of women. It would be no great advantage to have this department of human life feminized; the improvement desired is to have it less masculized; to reduce the excessive influence of one, and ...

— The Forerunner, Volume 1 (1909-1910) • Charlotte Perkins Gilman

... Aldgate, with Mrs. Bull, and only four of the younger Bulls and Cows, numbering six in all, make good their entry at the cost of 1l. 4s.—Books to tell them what they are to see and hear, the when and the how are 3s. Seats for the vaudeville (average of modest places) 9s. Ditto for the ballet 6s. Ditto for the battle 6s. Ditto for the fire-works 6s.—Total 2l. 14s.—But then they are not charged for seeing the lamps; there is no charge for walking round the walks; there is ...

— The Mirror, 1828.07.05, Issue No. 321 - The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction • Various

... the city that forms a haven for the oppressed and suppressed of foreign lands. In the cause of national or personal freedom they have found a refuge here, and the patriot who made it for them sits his steed, overlooking their district, while he listens through his left ear to vaudeville that caricatures the posterity of his proteges. Italy, Poland, the former Spanish possessions and the polyglot tribes of Austria-Hungary have spilled here a thick lather of their effervescent sons. In the eccentric cafes and ...

— The Voice of the City • O. Henry

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