medicine show

noun

: a traveling show using entertainers to attract a crowd among which remedies or nostrums are sold

Examples of medicine show in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
But rather than continue shining a light on the hidden costs of this tech industry debacle, The Post has chosen to join the medicine show. Letters To The Editor, Washington Post, 26 July 2024 Hurt drew inspiration from disparate sources, including ragtime and music from minstrel and medicine shows. Sonja Anderson, Smithsonian Magazine, 23 Feb. 2024 How did this music surpass its muses from the holds to the plantation to the medicine shows and minstrels and brothels and jukes, to the Grammys red carpet, lavish video shoots and MTV Cribs? Harmony Holiday, Los Angeles Times, 1 Dec. 2023 Robertson specialized in portraits of bygone figures and institutions, writing odes to Confederate soldiers, blacksmiths, medicine shows and whistle stops, his tall tales given weight and energy by the heft of the Band. Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Los Angeles Times, 9 Aug. 2023 In the classic format of the old-time medicine show, a snake-oil salesman traveled from town to town with various entertainers in tow. James Sullivan, BostonGlobe.com, 10 Oct. 2022 At the time, her parents owned and ran a traveling medicine show in Texas. New York Times, 29 Oct. 2021 Dennison, who grew up performing in her parents' traveling medicine show, was born in an Arizona men's prison in 1923, according to The New York Times. Maria Pasquini, PEOPLE.com, 1 Nov. 2021 Jo-Carroll Dennison spent a rootless childhood in a traveling medicine show in the 1920s and ’30s with little money or formal education. New York Times, 29 Oct. 2021

Word History

First Known Use

1887, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of medicine show was in 1887

Dictionary Entries Near medicine show

Cite this Entry

“Medicine show.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/medicine%20show. Accessed 15 Dec. 2024.

Kids Definition

medicine show

noun
: a traveling show using entertainers to attract a crowd that may buy cures, remedies, and medicines whose benefits are often much exaggerated
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!