curtain speech


nounTheater.
  1. the final speech of an act, scene, or play.

  2. a brief speech by an actor, producer, author, or the like, immediately following a performance, usually delivered in front of the closed curtains on the stage.

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

How to use curtain speech in a sentence

  • George Bernard Shaw's witticism when somebody in the gallery hissed while he was making a curtain speech has become famous.

    The Footlights Fore and Aft | Channing Pollock
  • I used to shriek with laughter listening to his curtain speeches or, rather, his curtain speech.

    Nat Goodwin's Book | Nat C. Goodwin
  • What an unthinking person is the average front-of-the-curtain speech maker!

    Nat Goodwin's Book | Nat C. Goodwin
  • The real author of our little comedy appears to make a curtain speech.

    The Rise of the Dutch Kingdom | Hendrik Willem van Loon
  • I recognized this deathless line as the curtain speech and crawled to my feet.

    The Repairman | Harry Harrison

British Dictionary definitions for curtain speech

curtain speech

noun
  1. a talk given in front of the curtain after a stage performance, often by the author or an actor

  2. the final speech of an act or a play

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