Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An observer of an event, especially a sports contest.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun One who looks on; an onlooker or eyewitness; a beholder; especially, one of a company present at a spectacle of any kind: as, the spectators of or at a game or a drama.
- noun Synonyms Looker-on, onlooker, observer, witness, by-stander. A person is said to be a spectator at a show, a bullfight, a wrestling-match; one of the audience at a lecture, a concert, the theater; and one of the congregation at church.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun One who on; one who sees or beholds; a beholder; one who is personally present at, and sees, any exhibition.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun One who observes an
event ; anobserver .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a woman's pump with medium heel; usually in contrasting colors for toe and heel
- noun a close observer; someone who looks at something (such as an exhibition of some kind)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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"Tapper's breasts so perfectly resemble those of a young woman of 18 to 19 that even the male genitals which are also perfect do not fully remove the impression that the spectator is looking on a female."
Amputations, acid gargles and ammonia rubs: Royal Navy surgeons' 1793-1880 journals revealed Maev Kennedy 2010
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Until there are 3-D films where the spectator is completely immersed, it's still only masturbation, and we're a long way from that. alex
Martin Scorsese Says Even Films Like Precious Should Be in 3D | /Film 2010
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The role of spectator is no longer possible, -- we are all now perforce agents of history, which, rightly envisaged, is the process of the emergence of new forms and values of living.
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Clotilde, who was very expert at this sort of architecture, was obliged to remain with the children, whilst Marian and O'Brian walked on, for standing spectator is cold work in a March wind.
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The eye of the spectator is disappointed by an irregular prospect of half-domes and shelving roofs: the western front, the principal approach, is destitute of simplicity and magnificence; and the scale of dimensions has been much surpassed by several of the Latin cathedrals.
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 1206
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Bourgeois drew on her childhood experiences for the rest of her life, and in 1974 created one of her most difficult sculptures (difficult for the spectator, that is), a big, lurid piece called Destruction of the Father, composed largely of what seem to be body parts.
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I am just a spectator, which is pretty hellish but does give me an overall view.
The Clique 2010
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"There was some shouting and shoving between them, but no punches," recalls a spectator, who said that Nebraska Democrat Bob Kerrey helped break up the altercation.
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(Being a spectator is a felony in 20 states, a misdemeanor in 28, and legal only in Georgia and Hawaii.)
Jamie Frevele: Bones Takes on Dogfighting. We All Should. 2008
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RN: That's why the sports pages in the newspaper should be called the spectator sports pages.
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