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Wild West show

Wild West show

1 6.3
A live show with cowboys riding horses, shooting, and showing life in the old West
  • noun
  • /waɪld wɛst ʃoʊ/
  • Archaic
translation icon : espectáculo del Viejo Oeste
  • Buffalo Bill's Wild West show entertained audiences with exciting performances of horsemanship.
  • Cody's Wild West show

Examples

  • Welcome to Bronco Billy's Wild West Show.

  • The Wild West show featured cowboys demonstrating their lasso skills and riding tricks.

  • DOC: Ladies and gentlemen, we welcome you this evening... ...to the greatest, the most authentic... ...Wild West Show in America!

  • Rodeo and Wild West shows grew simultaneously, with many individuals participating in both.

    Academic text (1994)
  • Don't you understand what Bronco Billy and the Wild West Show are all about?

  • Wild West shows, international expositions, and world fairs also provided sporadic markets for the sale of Lakota art to American and European audiences.

    Academic text (2002)
  • Many of the Wild West shows, including Cody's, were held in conjunction with fairs, circuses, and expositions, including the large international expositions.

    Academic text (2002)
  • Beginning with Buffalo Bill Cody's 1883 extravaganza, the major Wild West shows provided another avenue for transmitting the skills and traditions of the charros to the United States.

    Academic text (1994)
  • Many families attended the Wild West show to enjoy the reenactments of frontier life.

Synonyms

road show
vsWild West show
1 4.2

A show that travels to different places for people to see

is a specific frontier skills entertainment rather than any traveling performance
1 8.4

A traveling American show from the 1880s that showed horse riding, shooting and frontier life

is the general type of popular frontier entertainment exemplified by that famous spectacle

How Authentic

reenactment
29 6.6
Wild West show
  • Archaic
1 6.3
vaudeville
  • Archaic
23 9.5

Surface Forms

Morphology

wild + West + show

The phrase is compositionally built from 'Wild West' (the untamed American frontier) plus 'show' (a staged event), so a learner who knows the constituent words can infer it denotes a staged entertainment about the Wild West, featuring cowboys and frontier displays. Specific historical associations (e.g., Buffalo Bill) are cultural details, but the core meaning is directly derivable from the parts.

Etymology

Wild West show comes from large traveling performances in the late 1800s that acted out life in the Wild West, with cowboys, horses and sharpshooters doing stunts. So, the name came to mean a popular 'entertainment' that showed frontier stories and cowboy skills.