shadow play
noun
: a drama exhibited by throwing shadows of puppets or actors on a screen
called also shadow show
Examples of shadow play in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Natural light and its emotive shadow play, and honest interior compositions.
—
Ad Editors, Architectural Digest, 12 July 2021
There’s a nod to almost every one of the auteur’s past works, from gangster dramas to gothic shadow plays.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 16 May 2024
What audiences see are silhouettes engaged in a shadow play of entwined hands and arched backs, sensual but not X-rated.
—Rebecca Ritzel, Washington Post, 13 Feb. 2024
One episode hopscotches between the 1968 New York City garbage strike, a shadow play of the Ugandan genocide, and a mournful fantasy about the early AIDS crisis—all as background for the story of one marriage’s dissolution.
—Phillip MacIak, The New Republic, 7 Sep. 2023
See all Example Sentences for shadow play 
Ad Editors, Architectural Digest, 12 July 2021
There’s a nod to almost every one of the auteur’s past works, from gangster dramas to gothic shadow plays.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 16 May 2024
What audiences see are silhouettes engaged in a shadow play of entwined hands and arched backs, sensual but not X-rated.
—Rebecca Ritzel, Washington Post, 13 Feb. 2024
One episode hopscotches between the 1968 New York City garbage strike, a shadow play of the Ugandan genocide, and a mournful fantasy about the early AIDS crisis—all as background for the story of one marriage’s dissolution.
—Phillip MacIak, The New Republic, 7 Sep. 2023
See all Example Sentences for shadow play
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'shadow play.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Shadow play.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shadow%20play. Accessed 25 Oct. 2024.
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