ENTERTAINMENT • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Entertainment

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/ˌɛntərtˈeɪnmənt/ /ˌɛnərtˈeɪnmənt/ Listen

noun

Entertainment n.

1.

The act of receiving as host, or of amusing, admitting, or cherishing; hospitable reception; also, reception or treatment, in general. "The entertainment of Christ by faith." "The sincere entertainment and practice of the precepts of the gospel."

2.

That which entertains, or with which one is entertained; as:

(a)

Hospitality; hospitable provision for the wants of a guest; especially, provision for the table; a hospitable repast; a feast; a formal or elegant meal.

(b)

That which engages the attention agreeably, amuses or diverts, whether in private, as by conversation, etc., or in public, by performances of some kind; amusement. "Theatrical entertainments conducted with greater elegance and refinement."

3.

Admission into service; service. "Some band of strangers in the adversary's entertainment."

4.

Payment of soldiers or servants; wages. (Obs.) "The entertainment of the general upon his first arrival was but six shillings and eight pence."

Synonyms: Amusement; diversion; recreation; pastime; sport; feast; banquet; repast; carousal.

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Etymology of 'Entertainment'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Entertainment" Quotes from Famous Books

... my right hire is scarce two dirhems; but of a truth my heart and soul are taken up with you and how it is that ye are alone and have no man with you and no one to divert you, although ye know that women's sport is little worth without men, nor is an entertainment complete without four at the table, and ye have no fourth. What ...

— The Book Of The Thousand Nights And One Night, Volume I • Anonymous

... lounging, he suddenly remembered that Burbage was to act Shakespeare's King Richard, at the Fortune, that afternoon, and that he could not give a stranger in London, like Lord Glenvarloch, a higher entertainment than to carry him to that exhibition; "unless, indeed," he added, in a whisper, "there is paternal interdiction of the theatre as well as of ...

— The Fortunes of Nigel • Sir Walter Scott

... enjoyment of the change in either case, a certain degree of patience is required from the hearer or observer. In the first case, he must be satisfied to endure with patience the recurrence of the great masses of sound or form, and to seek for entertainment in a careful watchfulness of the minor details. In the second case, he must bear patiently the infliction of the monotony for some moments, in order to feel the full refreshment of the change. This is true even of the shortest musical passage ...

— The Stones of Venice, Volume II (of 3) • John Ruskin

... past would not be fatal to his wife's happiness. And inevitably, therefore, to his own. Having once formulated the idea that for the future he was to be one person and Harrisson another, he found its entertainment in practice easier than he had anticipated. He had only to say to himself that it was for her sake that he did it, and he did not find it altogether impossible to dismiss his own identity from the phantasmagoria that kept on coming back and back before his mind, and to assign the whole drama ...

— Somehow Good • William de Morgan

... to leave our authorised herberge, to which we replied by tossing the beer into the kennel, buckling on our knapsacks, and stalking into the street. We soon found a decent hotel, with the accommodation of a large room containing five beds, and at so reasonable a price that my whole expenses of entertainment during the two days and three nights of our stay in Prague, amounted only to one florin and forty kreutzers (schein), or one shilling and sixpence. We heard no more of our Bohemian herberge and its landlady. I may mention as a further proof of the different treatment which awaits ...

— A Tramp's Wallet - stored by an English goldsmith during his wanderings in Germany and France • William Duthie

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