sideshow
pronunciation
How to pronounce sideshow in British English:
UK [ˈsaɪdʃəʊ]
How to pronounce sideshow in American English:
US [ˈsaɪdʃoʊ]
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- Noun:
- a subordinate incident of little importance relative to the main event
- a minor show that is part of a larger one (as at the circus)
Word Origin
- sideshow (n.)
- also side-show, 1855, "minor exhibition alongside or near a principal one," apparently a coinage of P.T. Barnum's, from side (adj.) + show (n.). Hence, any diversion or distracting event.
Example
- 1. Foreign-policy debates are generally a sideshow .
- 2. Regulators should remain focused on risk and capital bigness is a sideshow .
- 3. The eclipse of japan as the world 's second-largest economy is a sideshow .
- 4. Suddenly , everything we so carefully planned has been turned into a sideshow .
- 5. In fact , it is precisely the " changes in the surrounding neighbourhood " that make it a bad idea to waste precious energy on a peace process that is now a sideshow .