exhibition

From Old French exhibicion.

• IPA^(key): /ɛksɪˈbɪʃən/

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• Rhymes: -ɪʃən

exhibition (countable and uncountable, plural exhibitions)

1. An instance of exhibiting, or something exhibited.
2. A large-scale public showing of objects or products.

   There was an art exhibition on in the town hall.

   a boat exhibition

3. A public display, intentional or otherwise, generally characterised as negative, a shameful exhibition or a disgusting exhibition
4. A demonstration of personal skill or feelings.
   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 178:

     "I could not have believed," remarked Francesca, "had I not witnessed it since my residence in your country, how the reality and the affectation of feeling can exist together. Before I left our solitary home, the very exhibition of emotion would have tempted me to doubt its truth. Now, I observe that some affect, as others shun, display; yet the feeling is equally true in both."

5. (UK) A financial award or prize given to a student (who becomes an exhibitioner) by a school or university, usually on the basis of academic merit.
   • 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 352:

     He was a scholarship boy who had won an Exhibition to Oxford, and then, like so many others, had found himself thrown upon the slave market of pedagogy.

   • 2016 November, Jonathan Meades, “Inside Job”, in Literary Review:

     Despite a couple of rustications, he gained an exhibition to Cambridge.

6. (sports) A game which does not impact the standings for any major cup or competition.

• exposition

Borrowed from Latin exhibitiōnem.

• IPA^(key): /ɛɡ.zi.bi.sjɔ̃/

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exhibition f (plural exhibitions)

1. (sports) exhibition, friendly
2. (document) presentation, production
3. showing off, outrageous behaviour

• match d’exhibition
• exhibitionnisme
• exhibitionniste

• “exhibition”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.