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conversation piece
noun
- any object that arouses comment because of some striking or unusual quality.
- group portraiture representing more or less fashionable people either in an interior or landscape setting.
- a play that relies for its effect mainly on the cleverness of its dialogue rather than on plot or action.
conversation piece
noun
- something, esp an unusual object, that provokes conversation
- (esp in 18th-century Britain) a group portrait in a landscape or domestic setting
- a play emphasizing dialogue
Word History and Origins
Origin of conversation piece1
Idioms and Phrases
An unusual object that arouses comment or interest, as in That bust of Aunt Nettie is ugly but it's an excellent conversation piece . In the early 1700s this same term was used for a particular kind of painting that represented a group, often a family, arranged as though they were conversing with one another. Later in the century the term was extended to any object that stimulates conversation.Example Sentences
Everyone is clothed and basically just laughing at this silly sex toy someone brought out as a conversation piece.
Plus, a phone call from “NSFWCorp” is an unfailing conversation piece.
At dinner, the dress was an instant hit, and I experienced what it was like to be a sartorial conversation piece.
Aper calls it little more than 400 years; but in a conversation-piece strict accuracy is not to be expected.
He indignantly refused to make a bid for the “Conversation Piece” ascribed to Hogarth.
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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.
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