fishbowl

noun

fish·​bowl ˈfish-ˌbōl How to pronounce fishbowl (audio)
1
: a bowl for the keeping of live fish
2
: a place or condition that affords no privacy

Examples of fishbowl in a Sentence

Being a politician these days means living in a fishbowl—every part of your life is open to public view.
Recent Examples on the Web The best was a clean car with a fishbowl windshield—someone who had money but was stupid. Jared Lemus, The Atlantic, 9 Mar. 2024 The production has managed to wangle an imposing location for the Visitor’s antics to unfold: one of those huge London statement homes made almost entirely of glass, like a sort of gigantic Cubist fishbowl. Catherine Bray, Variety, 17 Feb. 2024 There were five fishbowls, fruit baskets and a roll of paper towels on the counter. Taylor Hartz, Hartford Courant, 12 Jan. 2024 But in the cold dark of the mountains, with not a fishbowl cocktail or foam party to be found, the director put the kettle on and celebrated with a cup of tea. Thomas Page, CNN, 2 Feb. 2024 And in this case, the job in question features the sport’s largest fishbowl. Jon Wilner, San Diego Union-Tribune, 11 Jan. 2024 The colored smoke spreads like ink in a fishbowl, filling the camera frame and veiling the women before dispersing. Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 18 Oct. 2023 The lobbyists worked Capitol Hill and hosted dinners at Cafe Milano in Georgetown, a favorite fishbowl of Washington’s political elite, to buff the Egyptian government’s image. Vivian Yee, New York Times, 13 Oct. 2023 The idea was to build multimedia content, creative spaces inside children’s hospitals that are fishbowls where the patients and their families can come to interact and really come alive inside the hospital. Fortune Editors, Fortune, 13 Sep. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fishbowl.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1906, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of fishbowl was in 1906

Dictionary Entries Near fishbowl

Cite this Entry

“Fishbowl.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fishbowl. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

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