coulisse

[ koo-lees ]

noun

1. a timber or the like having a groove for guiding a sliding panel.
2. Theater.
   1. the space between two wing flats, leg drops, or the like.
   2. any space or area backstage.
   3. wing flat.

coulisse

/ kuːˈliːs /

noun

1. Also calledcullis a timber member grooved to take a sliding panel, such as a sluicegate, portcullis, or stage flat
2. 1. a flat piece of scenery situated in the wings of a theatre; wing flat
   2. a space between wing flats
3. part of the Paris Bourse where unofficial securities are traded Compare parquet

Word History and Origins

Origin of coulisse¹

1810–20; < French: groove, something that slides in a groove; portcullis

Word History and Origins

Origin of coulisse¹

C19: from French: groove, from Old French couleïce portcullis

Example Sentences

Officers rose and there was a general clamor; a woman wailed; from the wings, through luffing coulisses, men ran panting, wiping paint from their faces upon their oznabrig sleeves.

From Literature

Hovering somewhere in the coulisse of these performances, there seems to be an anxiety about authenticity.

From The Guardian

In one place, there was a rustic theatre, open to the sky; the stage a green slope: the coulisses, three entrances upon a side, sweet-smelling leafy screens.

From Project Gutenberg

They strolled among the ruins of the theatre begun under Augustus, and among the coulisses of the great amphitheatre; they sat on the granite steps; they went up the hundred steps of the western tower.

From Project Gutenberg

I to be married out of hand like a laundress of the coulisse!

From Project Gutenberg