Library / English Dictionary

    SPECTATOR

    Pronunciation (US): Play  (GB): Play

     I. (noun) 

    Sense 1

    Meaning:

    A woman's pump with medium heel; usually in contrasting colors for toe and heelplay

    Synonyms:

    spectator; spectator pump

    Classified under:

    Nouns denoting man-made objects

    Hypernyms ("spectator" is a kind of...):

    pump (a low-cut shoe without fastenings)

    Sense 2

    Meaning:

    A close observer; someone who looks at something (such as an exhibition of some kind)play

    Example:

    sky watchers discovered a new star

    Synonyms:

    looker; spectator; viewer; watcher; witness

    Classified under:

    Nouns denoting people

    Hypernyms ("spectator" is a kind of...):

    beholder; observer; perceiver; percipient (a person who becomes aware (of things or events) through the senses)

    Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "spectator"):

    browser (a viewer who looks around casually without seeking anything in particular)

    bystander (a nonparticipant spectator)

    cheerer (a spectator who shouts encouragement)

    eyewitness (a spectator who can describe what happened)

    gawker (a spectator who stares stupidly without intelligent awareness)

    motion-picture fan; moviegoer (someone who goes to see movies)

    ogler (a viewer who gives a flirtatious or lewd look at another person)

    looker-on; onlooker (someone who looks on)

    playgoer; theatergoer; theatregoer (someone who attends the theater)

    rubberneck; rubbernecker (a person who stares inquisitively)

    spy (a secret watcher; someone who secretly watches other people)

    starer (a viewer who gazes fixedly (often with hostility))

    peeper; Peeping Tom; voyeur (a viewer who enjoys seeing the sex acts or sex organs of others)

    Derivation:

    spectate (be a spectator in a sports event)

    Credits

     Context examples: 

    No wonder they laughed, for the expression of his face was droll enough to convulse a Quaker, as he stood and stared wildly from the unconscious innocents to the hilarious spectators with such dismay that Jo sat down on the floor and screamed.

    (Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

    Yet she appeared confident in innocence and did not tremble, although gazed on and execrated by thousands, for all the kindness which her beauty might otherwise have excited was obliterated in the minds of the spectators by the imagination of the enormity she was supposed to have committed.

    (Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

    A shout of admiration came from the spectators as they looked upon the fine lines of his figure, and I found myself roaring with the rest.

    (Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

    Then, amid a long-drawn breath from the spectators, the glove fell from the marshal's hand, and the two steel-clad horsemen met like a thunderclap in front of the royal stand.

    (The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

    And, indeed, I was glad not to have been a spectator of the havoc they made, because I am confident it would have sensibly touched me, by bringing former passages into my mind, which I would rather have forgot.

    (Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

    In the course of the day I was enrolled a member of the fourth class, and regular tasks and occupations were assigned me: hitherto, I had only been a spectator of the proceedings at Lowood; I was now to become an actor therein.

    (Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

    Prone upon the floor lay Mr. March, with his respectable legs in the air, and beside him, likewise prone, was Demi, trying to imitate the attitude with his own short, scarlet-stockinged legs, both grovelers so seriously absorbed that they were unconscious of spectators, till Mr. Bhaer laughed his sonorous laugh, and Jo cried out, with a scandalized face...

    (Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

    Ss-whack! ss-whack! ss-whack! went the horse-whips—for a number of the spectators, either driven onwards by the pressure behind or willing to risk some physical pain on the chance of getting a better view, had crept under the ropes and formed a ragged fringe within the outer ring.

    (Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

    The English archers and men-at-arms had mustered at that end of the lists, but the vast majority of the spectators were in favor of the attacking party, for the English had declined in popularity ever since the bitter dispute as to the disposal of the royal captive after the battle of Poictiers.

    (The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

    And to set forth the valour of my own dear countrymen, I assured him, that I had seen them blow up a hundred enemies at once in a siege, and as many in a ship, and beheld the dead bodies drop down in pieces from the clouds, to the great diversion of the spectators.

    (Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)


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