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  1. tableau love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A vivid or graphic description: The movie was a tableau of a soldier's life.
  2. n. A striking incidental scene, as of a picturesque group of people: "New public figures suddenly abound in the hitherto faceless totalitarian tableaux” ( John McLaughlin).
  3. n. An interlude during a scene when all the performers on stage freeze in position and then resume action as before.
  4. n. A tableau vivant.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A picture, or a picturesque presentation; specifically, in English use, a picturesque grouping of persons and objects, or of either alone; a living picture. See tableau vivant, below.
  2. n. In French law, a table or schedule; a showing; a list; a statement.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A striking and vivid representation; a picture.
  2. n. A vivid graphic scene of a group of people arranged as in a painting.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A striking and vivid representation; a picture.
  2. n. A representation of some scene by means of persons grouped in the proper manner, placed in appropriate postures, and remaining silent and motionless.
  3. n. (Solitaire) The arrangement, or layout, of cards.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. any dramatic scene
  2. n. a group of people attractively arranged (as if in a painting)

Etymologies

  1. From French tableau, from Old French tablel ("a surface which is used primarily for painting"). (Wiktionary)
  2. French, from Old French tablel, diminutive of table, surface prepared for painting; see table. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

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‘tableau’ has been looked up 2679 times, loved by 5 people, added to 33 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 9.