Both Uses of
pantomime
in
Great Expectations
- I expressed in pantomime the greatest astonishment.
p. 313.3 *pantomime = gestures and body movements (without words)
- The second piece was the last new grand comic Christmas pantomime, in the first scene of which, it pained me to suspect that I detected Mr. Wopsle with red worsted legs under a highly magnified phosphoric countenance and a shock of red curtain-fringe for his hair, engaged in the manufacture of thunderbolts in a mine, and displaying great cowardice when his gigantic master came home (very hoarse) to dinner.†
p. 407.2
Definitions:
-
(1)
(pantomime) a performance or expression of something through gestures and body movements without words
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
More rarely, pantomime, especially if qualified as Christmas pantomime can reference a humorous form of British theatre; or an ancient Roman type of theatre or the non-speaking actor it featured. On rare occasions, you may see the expression pantomime horse that refers to a horse costume worn by two people.