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  1. zoetrope love

Definitions

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. An optical instrument which exhibits pictures as if alive and in action, depending, like the thaumatrope, the phenakistoscope, etc., on the persistence of vision. It consists of a cylinder open at the top, with a series of slits in its circumference. A series of pictures representing the different attitudes successively assumed by an object in performing any act from its beginning to its close, as by a horseman in leaping a gate or an acrobat in performing a somersault, is arranged along the interior circumference. The instrument is then set in rapid motion, and the person applying his eye to the slits sees through them the figure appearing as if endowed with life and activity and performing the act intended. Compare zoögyroscope and zoöpraxinoscope. Also zoötrope and wheel of life.

Wiktionary

  1. n. An optical toy, in which figures made to revolve on the inside of a cylinder, and viewed through slits in its circumference, appear like a single figure passing through a series of natural motions as if animated or mechanically moved.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. An optical toy, in which figures made to revolve on the inside of a cylinder, and viewed through slits in its circumference, appear like a single figure passing through a series of natural motions as if animated or mechanically moved.

Etymologies

  1. Formed irregularly from Greek ζωή ‘life’ + -τροπος ‘turning’. (Wiktionary)

Examples

  • “Then I took a small wheel, about the size of an oyster-barrel -- the monks had dozens of them -- and pasted the photographs inside in successive order, like what is called a zoetrope, or wheel of life.”

    Hilda Wade, a Woman with Tenacity of Purpose

  • “The zoetrope was the centerpiece of the show, sitting in the middle of a white cyc with its projection against the opposite wall.”

    scaryideas

  • “Magic is a running thread throughout, from storytellers in travelling canoes and a door that leads to strange adventures, to a Snow Man and a massive zoetrope and the Ladies Of The Light, dancing high up in the trees.”

    The Guardian: This week's new events

  • “The camera zooms in on a book of sheets that each particpant holds, and each scene repeats a couple of times as a zoetrope would before the page turns and a new sequence begins.”

    January « 2009 « Squares of Wheat

  • “At other times his multiple images hint at the fascinating visual flicker of early zoetrope animations.”

    The Guardian: This week's new exhibitions

  • “A three-dimensional version of the zoetrope, a spinning optical toy that exploits the phenomenon of persistence of vision, it summons a tainted Victorian paradise in which cherubic fairies beat at fish and nests beneath frantically flapping birds and butterflies.”

    The Wall Street Journal: A Small World After All

  • “Kiss Chase Kate, they sold her pints on the promise of a peek, a snatch, a snapshot carved into a keyhole, a freezeframe of the zoetrope, and though she thought she'd left that all behind, behind the bikeshed, she obliged;”

    Fictionaut: Day 13: Bikesheds

  • “It may be that the rudest and most subversive parts of ever-rude Britannia are not really amenable to the gallery, occupying as they do the demented zoetrope of the web.”

    The Guardian: Rude Britannia: British Comic Art, at Tate Britain

  • “And Mat Collishaw's zoetrope in the tower of the ruined 14th-century castle makes a Victorian fantastique of the gardens: malign imps shatter robin's eggs, fish leap, butterflies flap like marauding bats, round and round in the spinning wheel's mesmerising dystopia.”

    The Guardian: Extraordinary Measures

  • “At the far end, strobed by the unreliable lighting within the car and the zoetrope flicker beyond the windows, sat a pale, raven-haired woman who stared at her with wide, wild eyes.”

    Simon & Schuster: When Rose Wakes

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reverse dictionary (1)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. praxinoscope

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  • avivamagnolia mechanical toy offering visual illusion: a mechanical toy consisting of a slotted drum that, when whirled, makes objects within the drum give the illusion of continuous motion

    mid-19th century. Greek z�?ē "life" + tropē "turn" Jan 17, 2009

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‘zoetrope’ has been looked up 2729 times, loved by 8 people, added to 34 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 19.