interlude

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An intervening episode, feature, or period of time: "Kerensky has a place in history, of a brief interlude between despotisms” ( William Safire).
2. n. A short farcical entertainment performed between the acts of a medieval mystery or morality play.
3. n. A 16th-century genre of comedy derived from this.
4. n. An entertainment between the acts of a play.
5. n. Music A short piece inserted between the parts of a longer composition.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. In dramatic art, an intermediate entertainment; a short independent performance introduced on the stage between the parts or in the course of the main entertainment; also, any similar by-play or episode or incident occurring in other circumstances.
2. n. In the early English drama, a play; particularly, a play from real life, distinguished from the mysteries and moralities. They were generally short and coarse. The first plays distinctively so called were those of John Heywood, beginning about 1521, although the name had previously been applied occasionally to dramas of any kind, and at an early date to the moralities.
3. n. In music, a subordinate passage or composition inserted between the principal sections of a work or performance. Specifically— A short instrumental or vocal piece inserted between the acts of a drama or an opera; an intermezzo.
4. n. An instrumental piece between successive parts of a church service.
5. To insert between, as an interlude.
6. To act as an interlude; come between other things.

Wiktionary

1. n. An intervening episode, etc.
2. n. An entertainment between the acts of a play.
3. n. music A short piece put between the parts of a longer composition.
4. v. transitive To provide with an interlude.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A short entertainment exhibited on the stage between the acts of a play, or between the play and the afterpiece, to relieve the tedium of waiting.
2. n. A form of English drama or play, usually short, merry, and farcical, which succeeded the Moralities or Moral Plays in the transition to the romantic or Elizabethan drama.
3. n. (Mus.) A short piece of instrumental music played between the parts of a song or cantata, or the acts of a drama; especially, in church music, a short passage played by the organist between the stanzas of a hymn, or in German chorals after each line.
4. n. Any intervening period of time, space, etc.; a pause between phases of an activity.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. perform an interlude
2. n. an intervening period or episode
3. n. a brief show (music or dance etc) inserted between the sections of a longer performance