Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A mechanical device consisting of a rotating drum ringed with narrow apertures through which an animated image is viewed.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An optical instrument which exhibits pictures as if alive and in action, depending, like the thaumatrope, the phenakistoscope, etc., on the persistence of vision.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun An optical toy, in which figures made to revolve on the inside of a cylinder, and viewed through slits in its circumference, appear like a single figure passing through a series of natural motions as if animated or mechanically moved.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun An optical toy, in which figures made to revolve on the inside of a cylinder, and viewed through slits in its circumference, appear like a single figure passing through a series of natural motions as if animated or mechanically moved.
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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Then I took a small wheel, about the size of an oyster-barrel -- the monks had dozens of them -- and pasted the photographs inside in successive order, like what is called a zoetrope, or wheel of life.
Hilda Wade, a Woman with Tenacity of Purpose Grant Allen 1873
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The zoetrope was the centerpiece of the show, sitting in the middle of a white cyc with its projection against the opposite wall.
scaryideas 2009
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A three-dimensional version of the zoetrope, a spinning optical toy that exploits the phenomenon of persistence of vision, it summons a tainted Victorian paradise in which cherubic fairies beat at fish and nests beneath frantically flapping birds and butterflies.
A Small World After All Kristin M. Jones 2011
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The camera zooms in on a book of sheets that each particpant holds, and each scene repeats a couple of times as a zoetrope would before the page turns and a new sequence begins.
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Kiss Chase Kate, they sold her pints on the promise of a peek, a snatch, a snapshot carved into a keyhole, a freezeframe of the zoetrope, and though she thought she'd left that all behind, behind the bikeshed, she obliged;
Day 13: Bikesheds Jane Flett 2011
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At other times his multiple images hint at the fascinating visual flicker of early zoetrope animations.
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The camera zooms in on a book of sheets that each particpant holds, and each scene repeats a couple of times as a zoetrope would before the page turns and a new sequence begins.
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At other times his multiple images hint at the fascinating visual flicker of early zoetrope animations.
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Magic is a running thread throughout, from storytellers in travelling canoes and a door that leads to strange adventures, to a Snow Man and a massive zoetrope and the Ladies Of The Light, dancing high up in the trees.
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A three-dimensional version of the zoetrope, a spinning optical toy that exploits the phenomenon of persistence of vision, it summons a tainted Victorian paradise in which cherubic fairies beat at fish and nests beneath frantically flapping birds and butterflies.
A Small World After All Kristin M. Jones 2011
avivamagnolia commented on the word zoetrope
mechanical toy offering visual illusion: a mechanical toy consisting of a slotted drum that, when whirled, makes objects within the drum give the illusion of continuous motion
mid-19th century. Greek z�?ē "life" + tropē "turn"
January 18, 2009