show
pronunciation
How to pronounce show in British English:
UK [ʃəʊ]
How to pronounce show in American English:
US [ʃoʊ]
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- Noun:
- a public exhibition of entertainment
- something intended to communicate a particular impression
- a public exhibition or entertainment
- pretending that something is the case in order to make a good impression
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- Verb:
- show or demonstrate something to an interested audience
- establish the validity of something, as by an example, explanation or experiment
- provide evidence for
- make visible or noticeable
- show in, or as in, a picture
- give expression to
- indicate a place, direction, person, or thing; either spatially or figuratively
- make clear and visible
- be or become visible or noticeable
- indicate a certain reading; of gauges and instruments
- give evidence of, as of records
- show (someone) to their seats, as in theaters or auditoriums
- finish third or better in a horse or dog race
Word Origin
- show
- show: [OE] Show originally meant ‘look at’. Its modern senses – basically ‘cause to look at’ – did not begin to develop until the early Middle English period. It comes from a prehistoric West Germanic *skauwōjan, whose German descendant schauen still means ‘look at’ (and whose Flemish descendant scauwen gave English scavenger). This in turn was derived from the base *skau- ‘see, look’, source also of English sheen and German schön ‘beautiful’.And the ultimate ancestor of *skau- was an Indo- European base which also produced Greek keein ‘observe’ and Latin cavēre ‘beware’ (source of English caution [13] and caveat [16]).=> caution, caveat, scavenger, scone, sheen
- show (v.)
- Old English sceawian "to look at, see, gaze, behold, observe; inspect, examine; look for, choose," from Proto-Germanic *skauwojan (cognates: Old Saxon skauwon "to look at," Old Frisian skawia, Dutch schouwen, Old High German scouwon "to look at;" Dutch schoon, Gothic skaunjai "beautiful," originally "conspicuous"), from Proto-Germanic root *skau- "behold, look at," from PIE *skou-, variant of root *skeue- "to pay attention, perceive" (see caveat). Causal meaning "let be seen; put in sight, make known" evolved c. 1200 for unknown reasons and is unique to English (German schauen still means "look at"). Spelling shew, popular 18c. and surviving into early 19c., represents obsolete pronunciation (rhymes with view). Horse racing sense is from 1903, perhaps from an earlier sense in card-playing.
- show (n.)
- c. 1300, "act of exhibiting to view," from show (v.). Sense of "appearance put on with intention to deceive" is recorded from 1520s. Meaning "display, spectacle" is first recorded 1560s; that of "ostentatious display" is from 1713 (showy is from 1712). Sense of "entertainment program on radio or TV" is first recorded 1932. Meaning "third place in a horse race" is from 1925, American English (see the verb). Show of hands is attested from 1789; Phrase for show "for appearance's sake" is from c. 1700. Show business is attested from 1850; shortened form show biz used in "Billboard" from 1942. Actor's creed the show must go on is attested from 1890. Show-stopper is from 1926; show trial first recorded 1937.
Example
- 1. I didn 't want to show undue excitement .
- 2. The show will include 125 major works fromwham !
- 3. Studies show adults can also gain brain power through exercise .
- 4. Statistics show the positive side .
- 5. But the big show was in the sky .