command performance

command performance

noun
a performance of a play, opera, ballet, or the like, given at the request of a sovereign or head of state.

Origin:
1895–1900
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To command performance

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Command performance is always a great word to know.
So is interrobang. Does it mean:
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.
Collins
World English Dictionary
command performance
 
n
a performance of a play, opera, etc, at the request of a ruler or of royalty

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Dictionary.com's 21st Century Lexicon
Main Entry:  command performance1
Part of Speech:  n
Definition:  a presentation or performance given at the request of royalty
Main Entry:  command performance2
Part of Speech:  n
Definition:  a performance one is required to give
Main Entry:  command performance3
Part of Speech:  n
Definition:  a social occasion one is required to attend
Dictionary.com's 21st Century Lexicon
Copyright © 2003-2012 Dictionary.com, LLC
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American Heritage
Idioms & Phrases

command performance

An occasion that one is obliged to attend, as in My boss's invitations to dinner are always a command performance. This term originally (late 1800s) denoted a theatrical or musical performance presented at the behest of a sovereign or head of state. By the 1930s it was also used figuratively for any more or less obligatory occasion or performance.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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