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🏒 Rink barriers 🎭 Theater stage
boards

boards

6.4
A theatre stage where actors perform plays
  • noun
  • /bɔrdz/
  • Jargon
translation icon : escenario
  • WHEN YOU'RE ON THE BOARDS, IT'S REAL.

Examples

  • It's easy to end up hitting the boards and that sort of thing.

  • FIRST NIGHT ON THE BOARDS.

    Ground Control (1998)

  • State Medical Boards love that.

    Blog text (28)

  • NOW I'M ON THE BOARDS, AND I DRIFT.

    Ground Control (1998)

  • [BOARDS THUMPING]

    Piranha 3DD (2012)

  • The actors stepped onto the boards for their opening night performance.

  • After years of training, she finally made her debut on the boards of a famous theatre.

  • Performing on the boards can be both thrilling and nerve-wracking for new actors.

Synonyms

stage
vsboards
733 3.9

The work of acting in a theater

is about the physical performance area rather than the profession
theater stage
vsboards
  • US
1 2.3

The part of a theater where actors perform for an audience

is referred to in plural when discussing performance settings

Idioms

to tread the boards
1 8.6

To act on a stage in front of an audience

Surface Forms

board singular
boards plural

Morphology

boards = board (semi-transparent) = board + s

The theatrical sense 'the boards' is a metonymic extension from the physical wooden boards of a stage; this specialized meaning may not be obvious to learners who only know the literal 'board'.

Etymology

Boards for the theatre comes from the wooden floor made of boards, and actors who 'tread the boards' are simply walking on that stage floor, which is why going 'on the boards' means performing.