English Explanatory Dictionary

well-made play

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A play belonging to a 19th-century neoclassical theatrical genre involving a tight plot and a climax close to the end. The story depends upon a key piece of information kept from some characters, and moves forward in a chain of actions that use minor reversals of fortune to create suspense.

Word forms

well-made play well-made plays

Etymology

Calque of French pièce bien faite, developed by the French dramatist Eugène Scribe (1791–1861).

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on W Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary