Chautauqua

[ shuh-taw-kwuh, chuh- ]

noun
  1. Lake, a lake in SW New York. 18 miles (29 km) long.

  2. a village on this lake: summer educational center.

  1. an annual educational meeting, originating in this village in 1874, providing public lectures, concerts, and dramatic performances during the summer months, usually in an outdoor setting.

  2. (usually lowercase) any similar assembly, especially one of a number meeting in a circuit of communities.

adjective
  1. of or relating to a system of education flourishing in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, originating at Lake Chautauqua, New York.

  2. (usually lowercase) pertaining to a chautauqua: a chautauqua program.

Words Nearby Chautauqua

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use Chautauqua in a sentence

  • Actors begin where militia colonels, Fifth avenue rectors and Chautauqua orators leave off.

    Damn! | Henry Louis Mencken
  • And there is another view that may be taken of Mr. Bryan's Chautauqua orations.

  • The climate, too, is much like that of the Chautauqua district.

    The Grapes of New York | U. P. Hedrick
  • This was the first carload of grapes sent from Chautauqua County.

    The Grapes of New York | U. P. Hedrick
  • In 1870 there were about 600 acres of vineyards in Chautauqua County.

    The Grapes of New York | U. P. Hedrick

British Dictionary definitions for chautauqua

chautauqua

/ (ʃəˈtɔːkwə) /


noun
  1. (in the US, formerly) a summer school or educational meeting held in the summer

Origin of chautauqua

1
C19: named after Chautauqua, a lake in New York near which such a school was first held

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012