freak show
35
6.8
- noun
- /frik ʃoʊ/
- Offensive
:
espectáculo de fenómenos
- The circus featured a freak show that amazed the audience with its unusual performers.
It's the biggest freak show on the global stage.
- It's the biggest freak show on the global stage.
- I mean, that is a freak show.
- So occasionally the carnivals would have freak shows join up with us, but they were all, you know, corner store freaks.
- My larger extended family put on a freak show for me so that my parents who didn't drink were like, see, this is how people act when they do drink.
- Don't become a like a freak show, a circus act.
- Crash in the capital you fucking freak show nut jobs.
Examples
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This place is a freak show.
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It's the sour-looking guy from the freak show.
Fiction book (2001) -
It's the biggest freak show on the global stage.
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Look at this freak show.
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Those two are turning this sport into a freak show.
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Middle America was seeing a freak show in too many of the initial images, though that is changing now.
Blog text (27) -
If you live in the US, you get front row seats to the biggest freak show ever!
Blog text (15) -
It gives a whole new meaning to the term freak show.
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So the Sun Festival of San Fermin in Pamplona is this big citywide, you know, like freak show basically for a week.
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In fact, the postponement only cleared more room in people's minds for the continuing freak show that is Rodriguez's postseason.
Blog text (6)
Synonyms
13
4.2
A small show at a fair or circus beside the main event
1
7.0
A very messy and badly organized event or situation
A public show of people or things seen as strange for entertainment
How Bizarre
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'an event featuring unusual or bizarre people/acts' is directly and compositionally derived from 'freak' (an unusually appearing person) + 'show' (a staged event). This straightforward noun+noun combination follows common English compounding patterns and is cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily infer the MWE's meaning (though cultural connotations may require additional exposure).
Etymology
Freak show comes from old carnivals and circus tents where people with very unusual looks or acts were put on display. The word freak meant 'strange' and show was the performance, so the image of a shocking public spectacle explains why today people call something a 'freak show' when it seems 'strange', 'chaotic', or 'unfair'.