goldfish bowl
1
6.5
- noun
- /ˈɡoʊldfɪʃ boʊl/
- Informal
:
vida en un pez en un acuario
- Being a celebrity means living in a goldfish bowl; there is no escaping the public's scrutiny.
Examples
-
The people who swim in this goldfish bowl of ours are all on the same lists, looking for the same solutions.
Blog text (29) -
Living in such a small town felt like being in a goldfish bowl, where everyone knew my business.
-
After the scandal broke, she felt trapped in a goldfish bowl as reporters constantly watched her every move.
Synonyms
5
5.8
A situation where people have no privacy and are always watched
A situation where many people watch you and you have no privacy
Antonyms
How Private
Surface Forms
Morphology
goldfish + bowl
The figurative sense follows directly from the literal image of a goldfish in a glass bowl—constantly visible with no private space—so a learner who knows 'goldfish' and 'bowl' can readily infer a situation of being watched. This is a straightforward, familiar visual metaphor (used in English and in many other languages), making the expression transparently compositional for a B1 learner.
Etymology
Goldfish bowl is also used to mean a life with no privacy: imagine living in a clear, round bowl where everyone can watch you from every side, which is why the phrase means being watched closely or having no 'privacy'.