Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Before attending the theater (especially of drinks or a meal).
  • adjective Preceding the formation of theater.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

pre- +‎ theater

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Examples

  • His tone was both ingratiating and contemptuous, the one reserved for the pretheater crowd, tourists, and anyone -- easily identified by the way they kept looking around -- who had been saving up.

    Excerpt: In the Kitchen by Monica Ali 2009

  • At six the restaurant was filling up with the loud pretheater crowd, but she and Twilly had a small table far from the bar, where it was quiet enough to talk.

    7th Heaven Patterson, James 2008

  • At six the restaurant was filling up with the loud pretheater crowd, but she and Twilly had a small table far from the bar, where it was quiet enough to talk.

    7th Heaven Patterson, James 2008

  • "But by the time Matthew got there, the place was filling up with a pretheater crowd," McGuigan says.

    Bylines 2007

  • Oysters were served both at taverns as a pretheater snack and inside the theater itself, the Elizabethan equivalent of ballpark franks.

    Feeling Listless - "Taking the credit for your second symphony." 2004

  • Oysters were served both at taverns as a pretheater snack and inside the theater itself, the Elizabethan equivalent of ballpark franks.

    Feeling Listless - "Taking the credit for your second symphony." 2004

  • It's a fine deal on the pretheater menu, which includes many of Mr. McKenty's best dishes.

    Sneaking Over to the Garrick for a Toast to Arthur Miller 1999

  • The following week, I returned in the evening for the Garrick's pretheater dinner, which sounded like a bargain – a three-course meal for $25 – before Death of a Salesman.

    Sneaking Over to the Garrick for a Toast to Arthur Miller 1999

  • One caveat - despite its location, Gauthier Soho is too elaborate for an expedient pretheater dinner.

    NYT > Home Page By ALEXANDER LOBRANO 2011

  • But the bulk of the pretheater restaurant scene is grim banquet food on polyester tablecloths: block after block of steam-table pastas and Diet Cokes; industrial salads; not-from-scratch chicken dishes; pound after pound of Sysco fries.

    NYT > Home Page 2010

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