Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A structure, usually at a circus or amusement park, enclosing several interactive attractions that do not involve performers.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

fun +‎ house

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Examples

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  • Most common funhoue devices:

    A slide, usually much taller and steeper than you would find on a playground. Some were as much as two stories high. Slides of comparable size can be seen today on carnival midways as separate attractions. Most were made of polished hardwood, and riders would sit on burlap mats to protect themselves from friction burns and to ensure that rubber-soled shoes didn't slow the slider down.

    A large spinning disk. While the disk was stationary patrons would get on and sit in the center, then the opeator would start the disk spinning, and people would be thrown off by centripetal force, ending up against a padded wall. A variation was a disk with a raised center, shaped much like a Bundt cake mold; as the device speeded up people would slide downhilll as well as outward.

    A horizontal revolving cylinder or "barrel" to try to walk through without falling down.

    Sections of floor that undulated up and down, tipped from side to side or moved forward and back, either motorized ore activated by the person's weight. Stairs that moved up and down or tipped from side to side. The industry refers to these and similar devices as “floor tricks.�?

    Compressed air jets shooting up from the floor, originally designed to blow up women's skirts, but effective at startling almost anyone and making them jump and scream.

    An array of distorting mirrors.

    _Wikipedia

    January 31, 2008