tableau
a picture, as of a scene.
a picturesque grouping of persons or objects; a striking scene.
a representation of a picture, statue, scene, etc., by one or more persons suitably costumed and posed.
Solitaire. the portion of a layout to which one may add cards according to suit or denomination.
Origin of tableau
1Words Nearby tableau
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use tableau in a sentence
The tiny tableaus chronicling the boys’ flight fittingly range from extraordinarily realistic to fantastical, alternately portraying the vastness and claustrophobic aspects of their ordeal.
‘Flight,’ an astonishing tale told using diorama and figures | Patrick Folliard | January 12, 2022 | Washington BladeJohn Doyle’s Assassins, now playing off-Broadway at the Classic Stage Company, has his assassins form their final tableau in front of footage from the January 6 Capitol riot.
Why the new West Side Story works — and one thing that doesn’t | Constance Grady | December 10, 2021 | VoxI assume I will sell my work until people stop buying it, both out of necessity and because it does bring me joy to make a silly little thing that someone will incorporate into the tableau of their home.
Most of the movie’s tableaus—like the one featuring the distracted waiter—are one-offs.
Roy Andersson's Quietly Gorgeous About Endlessness Explores Questions for Which There Are No Answers | Stephanie Zacharek | April 29, 2021 | TimeRaya and the Last Dragon offers a tableau of cultural references inspired by the whole of Southeast Asia.
A first-rank boulevardier in the 1960s tableau, his wives included one Rita Hayworth.
Inside North America’s First Islamic Art Museum | Shinan Govani | September 16, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTNow those are destroyed, too, and the animals are strewn about, bloating and stinking, as if in a tableau of “Guernica.”
The tableau of five candidates on stage at first seemed more like a set of high school stereotypes than a political debate.
The next minute they are frozen in an eerie, extended tableau vivant——a still-life that's not actually still.
‘A Field in England’ Is a Psychedelic Cinematic Trip | Andrew Romano | February 9, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTEverybody else was screaming; the noise was overwhelming, the tableau so terrifying that my brain locked up.
The tableau des Saints is a still more severe criticism of the heroes of Christendom.
Baron d'Holbach | Max Pearson CushingHer interruption of the tableau sounded oddly abrupt to ears used to her pleasant accents.
At Last | Marion HarlandThe curtain fell on a tableau: the Holidays, with their flags and banners, old Father Time, and the happy children.
The Story of the Big Front Door | Mary Finley LeonardLet me enjoy the beauty of the tableau, no matter how it is produced.
Pharaoh's Broker | Ellsworth DouglassThe tableau answered for itself before the words had left his lips.
The Escape of a Princess Pat | George Pearson
British Dictionary definitions for tableau
/ (ˈtæbləʊ) /
See tableau vivant
a pause during or at the end of a scene on stage when all the performers briefly freeze in position
any dramatic group or scene
logic short for semantic tableau
Origin of tableau
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Browse