I. ˈpajənt noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English pagyn, pagend, padgeant, from Medieval Latin pagina scene of a play, stage, from Latin pagina page
1.
a.
(1) obsolete : a scene or act of a play (as a medieval mystery play)
(2) archaic : part , role
b. obsolete : stage , platform ; specifically : a stage or platform used for the open-air performance of medieval mystery plays and often mounted on wheels so as to be capable of being moved from place to place
2.
a. : a falsely impressive display that masks lack of substance and reality : a mere show : pretense
saw through the hollowness, the sham, the silliness of the empty pageant in which I had always played — Oscar Wilde
b. : an ostentatious often exhibitionistic display
sympathize profoundly with a poetry that doesn't make a pageant of its bleeding heart — J.L.Lowes
3.
a. : show , spectacle , exhibition
a beauty pageant
the variegated pageant of London life — Douglas Bush
especially : an elaborate usually open-air exhibition or spectacle that is marked typically by colorful often gorgeous costuming and scenery and often by vocal and instrumental music, that consists of a series of tableaux (as representations of important events in the history of a community) or of a loosely unified drama with spoken or sung parts or of an often resplendent parade or procession usually with showy floats and with a loosely dramatic or commemorative theme, and that is usually presented in celebration of an event or series of events or in honor of some personage or group or of a locality by amateur actors or other amateur performers recruited from or near the locality in which it is presented
b. : a steady continuous movement of things developing or passing by in or as if in a parade or procession
this exciting pageant of events — J.H.Baker
watch the pageant of the world go by — Ralph Hammond-Innes
4. : pageantry 1
for pageant of language he has had no equal in English — W.R.Thayer
lacked the Roman appetite for pageant — John Buchan
full of stately dignity and somber pageant — Richard Harrison
II. adjective
archaic : of, relating to, or typical of pageants or pageantry
the pageant pomp of such a servile throne — John Dryden
III. transitive verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
archaic : to surround with pageantry