goldfish bowln.
/ˈɡəʊl(d)fɪʃ bəʊl/, U.S. /ˈɡoʊl(d)fɪʃ ˌboʊl/ 1. A glass bowl, typically spherical or globular, in which goldfish are kept.
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the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > zoo > [noun] > aquarium > fish bowl
goldfish bowl1855
1855 ‘C. Bede’ Love's Provocations viii. 49 Just as the captain had restored the gold fish bowl to its proper place, Mama entered the room.
1880 J. Hingston Austral. Abroad II. 184 A petite lobster of many colours..would be the pet of a parlour aquarium, and show well in a gold-fish bowl.
1924 D. Parker in Life 31 Jan. 3/2 God help you if you break the goldfish bowl!
1941 J. P. Marquand H. M. Pulham, Esq. xxxi. 304 She was..telling Mrs. Jones..not to let the maid pick up the broken pieces of the goldfish bowl.
1966 J. Dos Passos Best Times (1968) iv. 148 They served excellent beer in glasses the size of goldfish bowls.
2005 Independent 10 Dec. (Mag.) 81/3 Five goldfish bowls filled with silver sand and coral.
2.
a. Something regarded as resembling a goldfish bowl; spec. a place or situation affording no privacy.
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society > communication > manifestation > showing to the sight > exposure to public view > [noun] > place for
theatre1581
show window1785
showcase1917
goldfish bowl1924
1924 Washington Post 26 Oct. 2 Privacy in American life was undesirable. The American home, properly considered, was a gold fish bowl.
1935 M. Sullivan Our Times VI. viii. 150 Their relations for several months were carried on in a goldfish bowl. From the time public discussion of cabinet possibilities began, newspapers watched and wrote of what Harding would do about Daugherty.
1951 Sat. Evening Post 22 Dec. 44/4 The towermen in their elevated air-conditioned goldfish bowls.
1965 Listener 20 May 730/1 The White House has always been a goldfish bowl, but under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson it has become an educational theatre as well.
2014 Daily Tel. 18 June (Sport section) 4/2 Off the pitch, it's a hard one, it's such a goldfish bowl these days. He has to live his own life.
b. U.S. slang. A room in a prison, police station, etc., in which interrogations are carried out. Now historical.
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the mind > attention and judgement > enquiry > interrogation > [noun] > place for
goldfish bowl1930
interrogation room1944
1930 J. Lait Put on Spot 79 There was a small back room which was known to every crook in the city. The ‘goldfish bowl’.
1942 L. V. Berrey & M. Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §466/11 Gold-fish bowl, the room in which the third degree is administered.
1962 Amer. Speech 37 269 Goldfish Bowl, an interrogation room in a jail or detention station.
2010 D. Waugh Gangs of St. Louis vi. 116 He and Louis Mandel were taken to Twelfth and Clark and given separate sessions in the ‘goldfish bowl’ (a notorious soundproof room used for vigorous police interrogation).
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1855