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Understudy   /ˈəndərstˌədi/   Listen
Understudy

noun
1.
An actor able to replace a regular performer when required.  Synonym: standby.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Understudy" Quotes from Famous Books



... holders taking almost all the risk. It had never once occurred to me to have any feeling of any kind about Tom, or in any way to take him into my calculations as to Anita. He was, to my eyes, too obviously a pale understudy of his powerful and fascinating brother. Whenever I thought of him as the man Anita fancied she loved, I put it aside instantly. "The kind of man a woman really cares for," I would say to myself, "is the measure ...
— Ainslee's, Vol. 15, No. 6, July 1905 • Various

... good- looking young fellow; he told them that he was lately married, and they liked him so much that they were sorry to see him afterwards privately boxing the ears of the piccolo, the waiter's little understudy. Perhaps the piccolo deserved it, but they would rather not have witnessed his punishment; his being in a dress-coat seemed to make it ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

... garden path. I have toiled at this childish pleasure for hours in the strong sun, conscious of my incurable ignorance; but too keenly pleased to be ashamed. Meanwhile, the blackbird (or his tropical understudy) would be fluting ...
— In the South Seas • Robert Louis Stevenson

... Poppy's song that it was broad daylight, was awake and splashing in his bath. Again in Poppy's mind (how unnecessarily) he stood for the respectabilities and proprieties; he was an understudy for Tiny of the ...
— The Divine Fire • May Sinclair

... years, and Taylor by twenty; but both established their reputation before middle age. Lowin at twenty-seven took part with Shakespeare in the first representation of Ben Jonson's Sejanus in 1603. He was an early, if not the first, interpreter of the character of Falstaff. Taylor as understudy to the great actor Burbage, a very close ally of Shakespeare, seems to have achieved some success in the part of Hamlet, and to have been applauded in the role of Iago, while the dramatist yet lived. When the dramatist died, Lowin was forty, ...
— Shakespeare and the Modern Stage - with Other Essays • Sir Sidney Lee

... said he, and never had his voice been so friendly as in these regretful accents, "don't try to go on to-day. You're evidently not yourself. Go home and rest for a few days. We'll get along with your understudy, Miss Esmond. When Mr. Crossley wants to put you in again, he'll send for you. You mustn't be discouraged. I know how beginners take these things to heart. Don't fret about it. You can't fail ...
— The Price She Paid • David Graham Phillips

... leave it at that. But we can't go on pretending to study this menu for ever! You came to dine with Mr. Smith. You'll dine with his understudy instead. You'll let me order dinner? It's ...
— The Second Latchkey • Charles Norris Williamson and Alice Muriel Williamson

... Theatre-Francaise announced a great representation of Hernani to be given as a benefit for the sufferers in the Royal Theatre de la Monnaie in Brussels. The star who had undertaken "Dona Sol" fell ill ten days before the performance was due. The Comedie was much embarrassed, for the usual understudy of the indisposed actress was an amiable echo, with little talent. Mounet-Sully thought immediately of Esperance and obtained permission to make whatever arrangements he could with her. His arrival at the Darbois home occasioned ...
— The Idol of Paris • Sarah Bernhardt

... dreamer. Not at all! I am practical, a man of affairs. Are you content with your position in the Comedie Moderne? No, you are not. You occupy a subordinate position; you play the role of a waiting-maid, which is quite unworthy of your genius, and understudy the ingenue, who is a portly matron in robust health. The opportunity to distinguish yourself appears to you as remote as Mars. Do I ...
— A Chair on The Boulevard • Leonard Merrick

... others, when he was murdered, used his name and his friendship for them to advance their own ambitious designs. Antony and Octavius struggle with each other to catch the reins of power which have fallen from his hands; Dolabella, who seems to regard himself as an understudy of Caesar, plays a serio-comic part in Rome in his efforts to fill the place of the dead dictator; while Decimus Brutus hurries to the North to make sure of the province which Caesar had ...
— The Common People of Ancient Rome - Studies of Roman Life and Literature • Frank Frost Abbott

... which set the great multitude in a roar, became in that summer and autumn familiar to millions of his countrymen; and the cartoonists made his features and gestures familiar to many other millions. On his Western trip, Roosevelt for a companion and understudy had Curtis Guild, and more than once when Roosevelt lost his voice completely, Guild had to speak for him. Up to election day in November, the Republicans did not feel confident, but when the votes were counted, McKinley had a plurality of over 830,000, and beat Bryan by more ...
— Theodore Roosevelt; An Intimate Biography, • William Roscoe Thayer

... William G. Lee, who had served in many subordinate offices in local lodges before he had been chosen First Vice-Grand Master in 1895. For fifteen years he was a faithful understudy to Morrissey whose policy he has continued in a characteristically fearless and thoroughgoing manner. When he assumed the presidency of the order, he obtained a ten-hour day in the Eastern territory for all train and yard men, ...
— The Armies of Labor - Volume 40 in The Chronicles Of America Series • Samuel P. Orth

... of simple human charity she was called upon to perform? Could it not be considered something similar to acting as an understudy—continuing a role which had been left with some last lines unsaid by the principal actor? Why need she hesitate to respond to the urgent appeal for comfort and for help? "No brightness—only darkness, until you came. Ah, dear love! the shadows ...
— East of the Shadows • Mrs. Hubert Barclay

... a hidden force he had never felt before, Baldy sturdily forged on and on, till they, too, were left behind. A new fervor thrilled him as he determined to show that he was more than "just dog." No understudy on the stage, given an unexpected opportunity, ever desired more ardently to eclipse the star than did Baldy to fill ...
— Baldy of Nome • Esther Birdsall Darling

... explaining to Fillmore stopped Sally. And while she was chafing at this new complication which had come to upset the orderly routine of her life there was an outburst of voices in the other office. Ginger's understudy seemed to be endeavouring to convince somebody that the Big Chief was engaged and not to be intruded upon. In this he was unsuccessful, for the door opened tempestuously and ...
— The Adventures of Sally • P. G. Wodehouse

... charm of face or figure, Charlotte Cushman resolved to place herself in the front rank as an actress, even in such characters as Rosalind and Queen Katherine. The star actress was unable to perform, and Miss Cushman, her understudy, took her place. That night she held her audience with such grasp of intellect and iron will that it forgot the absence of mere dimpled feminine grace. Although poor, friendless, and unknown before, when the curtain fell upon ...
— Pushing to the Front • Orison Swett Marden

... friend," said his father, "although the interview will be private, you have really no cause for jealousy. At present, remember, I am but the second string in the bow-case, the understudy who has learnt the part, a humble position, but ...
— Lysbeth - A Tale Of The Dutch • H. Rider Haggard

... protested Tiddy, to whom it seemed a shame that Phyllis' golden loveliness should be wasted. Allan was Lord Tolloller, the other suitor, but Phyllis preferred, she said, to be generally useful. She was practically understudy to every one in the place, having a quick memory and a good ear, and spent her time, besides, hearing parts. Her real reason for not wanting to play was that she was afraid the De Guenthers would be left too much to themselves if she was tied up to rehearsals. Clarence ...
— The Wishing-Ring Man • Margaret Widdemer

... work as Brennan's "leg man," the newspaper term for understudy, John became acquainted with the men in Los Angeles who appear almost daily in the news. He met Le Compte Davis, Paul Schenck, Joe Ford, Dick Kittrelle, Al MacDonald, W. I. Gilbert, Frank Dominguez and Jud Rush among the lawyers; the district attorney and his staff of deputies; ...
— Spring Street - A Story of Los Angeles • James H. Richardson

... radiantly, "Oh, I had such luck. I was only the understudy, and doing minor parts, when the soprano was taken ill in the second act and I went in and scored a triumph. It was 'Love Tales of Hoffmann' and when I sang the 'Barcarolle' they recalled me seven times! That is they recalled us both—it's sung as a ...
— Silver and Gold - A Story of Luck and Love in a Western Mining Camp • Dane Coolidge



Words linked to "Understudy" :   memorize, role player, actor, alternate, thespian, memorise, histrion, learn, con, player



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