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stage whisper
noun
- a loud whisper on a stage, meant to be heard by the audience.
- any whisper loud enough to be overheard.
stage whisper
noun
- a loud whisper from one actor to another onstage intended to be heard by the audience
- any loud whisper that is intended to be overheard
Word History and Origins
Origin of stage whisper1
Idioms and Phrases
A whisper loud enough to be overheard, as in Our three-year-old behaved beautifully at the ceremony, but then he asked in a stage whisper, “Why does that lady have blue hair?” This expression alludes to an actor's whisper on stage, which is meant to be heard by the audience. [Mid-1800s]Example Sentences
The substitute nurse says to him in a stage whisper, “You know, the doctor says no vodka.”
But suddenly someone said in a stage whisper, “Police custody, one week!”
"I 'm not going to say one word about it," said he, in a stage whisper that even the Knight himself overheard.
Oh, I think I can manage them, Jerry returned in a confident stage whisper.
I leant forward as if imparting a secret of great importance, and said, in a stage whisper: "Germans!"
“Never mind, honey,” his imperturbable wife assured him in a stage whisper.
"Something horrid," said Anthony's younger sister to her elder in a stage whisper.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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