raree show

[ rair-ee ]

noun

1. peep show.
2. a carnival or street show; spectacle.

raree show

/ ˈrɛəriː /

noun

1. a street show or carnival
2. another name for peepshow

Word History and Origins

Origin of raree show¹

First recorded in 1695–1705; allegedly imitative of a foreign pronunciation of rare show

Word History and Origins

Origin of raree show¹

C17: raree from rare ¹

Example Sentences

The famous Quex having relinquished the raree show of London—its lunches, its beauties, its theatres, its celebrities and its suppers—to take part in this boring and extremely inconvenient War, how proper that he should be succeeded by a younger fl�neur!

From Project Gutenberg

Photograph: Margaret Busby In 1967, a new publishing company set out to produce in paperback at affordable prices, starting with three titles: Selected Poems by James Reeves, A Stained Glass Raree Show by Libby Houston and The Saipan Elegy by James Grady.

From The Guardian

I prais'd it much, and the happy Life I led in it; expressing strongly my Intention of returning to it; and one of them asking what kind of Money we had there, I produc'd a handful of Silver and spread it before them, which was a kind of Raree Show they had not been us'd to, Paper being the Money of Boston.

From Project Gutenberg

Here again we see a great change—great to the common eye of the public, who miss a raree show, and a still greater one to the hundreds and thousands of human beings whose subsistence depended upon the work done at those places.

From Project Gutenberg

It meant simply this: that, thanks to the financial success of the Government investment of the public money in a grand raree show at Paris, called a 'Universal Exposition,' such an excess of income over outlay appeared in what is called the 'ordinary budget.'

From Project Gutenberg