From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpantomimepan‧to‧mime /ˈpæntəmaɪm/ noun 1 APT[countable, uncountable] a type of play for children that is performed in Britain around Christmas, in which traditional stories are performed with jokes, music, and songs2 APT[countable, uncountable] a method of performing using only actions and not words, or a play performed using this method SYN mime3 [countable] British English a situation or behaviour that is silly
Examples from the Corpus
pantomime• She performed a pantomime of having swallowed an insect.• There were singing, games, dancing and pantomimes.• How appropriate that her latest stage role should be in pantomime.• There then followed a curious little pantomime, apparently also dictated by tradition.• Mind you, I feared the worst for this year's crop of pantomimes.• He had an infectious sense of humour, and recently scripted an amusing and satirical pantomime.Origin pantomime (1500-1600) Latin pantomimus, from panto- “all” (from Greek, from pan; → PAN-) + mimus ( → MIME1) 