shadow play
Americannoun
-
a show in which shadows of puppets, flat figures, or live actors are projected onto a lighted screen.
noun
-
a theatrical entertainment using shadows thrown by puppets or actors onto a lighted screen
Etymology
Origin of shadow play
First recorded in 1890–95
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"You could say that these elections are kind of a shadow play," Kristof Titeca, an expert on Uganda at Antwerp university, told AFP.
From Barron's • Jan. 12, 2026
The work unfolds as a digital shadow play projected on the walls and floor of the Swiss Institute’s basement.
From New York Times • Aug. 3, 2023
But, at their best, they are thrillingly fabular, giving us the sense that we are witnessing a shadow play, our attention absorbed while elsewhere something fundamental takes place.
From The Guardian • Jul. 13, 2019
Sangmi Yoo also uses incised forms and shadow play, although her multilayered pieces evoke not nature but the suburbia of her Korean childhood and her current home in Texas.
From Washington Post • May 2, 2019
A young man burst out from the side of a stage and told the crowd, “And now the Moon Lady will come and tell her sad tale to you, in a shadow play, classically sung.”
From "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.