How to use sideshow in a sentence

15 example sentences · noun

Sideshow means a minor attraction at a larger event such as a circus, fair or music festival. Example: “The sideshow feat was just a gaff, but the audience was too proud to admit they'd been fooled.”

Examples of sideshow by meaning

nounA minor attraction at a larger event such as a circus, fair or music festival.

They taught the twins to play saxophone and transferred them from the sideshow to vaudeville.2005, Joe Nickell, Secrets of the Sideshows, page 126
Entertainment features and sideshows enhanced attendance.2006, Lynda Mannik, Canadian Indian Cowboys in Australia: Representation, Rodeo, and the RCMP at the Royal Easter Show, 1939, page 13
Don′t miss the rusty relics dredged up from the original pier, and the spooky old sideshow machines.2009, Charles Rawlings-Way, Meg Worby, Lindsay Brown, Paul Harding, Central Australia: Adelaide to Darwin, Lonely Planet, page 63

nounAn incidental spectacle that diverts attention from a larger concern.

Far from learning from the failures of ‘economic rationalism,’ the Liberals want us to swallow more of the snake oil medicine while diverting our attention to the consumption tax sideshow.1997, Frank Stilwell, “One Nation For Whom?”, in Michael Costa, Mark Hearn, editors, Reforming Australia's Unions: Insights from Southland...
All they’ve really achieved is keeping addiction an oddity, a sideshow.2013 July 19, Kristen Johnston, “Turning Addiction Into a Sideshow”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 20 Apr 2019
An emergency brake to limit in-work benefits for EU migrants is a “sideshow” that will fail to reduce the number of arrivals to the UK, Alan Johnson has said.2016 February 4, Nicholas Watt, quoting Alan Johnson, “Migrant benefits limit is sideshow in EU debate, says Alan Johnson”, in The...

nounAn incident in which drivers block traffic to perform stunts like donuts and burnouts for an extended period of time.

A sideshow is essentially a spontaneous street party in which one might “ghostride the whip” (get out while driving), “gas brake dip,” or even “scrape” (spin donuts in the middle of the street).2009, Mickey Hess, editor, Hip Hop in America: A Regional Guide, volume 1, ABC-CLIO, →ISBN, page 274
But a bodega owner in the area said that crime seemed to be rising, and that at night, the neighborhood became a backdrop for drug use and occasional sideshows.2023 April 7, Kate Conger, Shawn Hubler, “Stabbing of Cash App Creator Raises Alarm, and Claims of ‘Lawless’ San Francisco”, in The New...

More sentences with sideshow

The sideshow feat was just a gaff, but the audience was too proud to admit they'd been fooled.From the entry gaff
But we might prefer to picture him as contributing something more like a comastic sideshow to it.2011, Stephen Halliwell, Between Ecstasy and Truth: Interpretations of Greek Poetics from Homer to Longinus, Oxford University Press…. From the entry comastic
He is a classic sideshow performer, entertaining crowds with feats such as sword swallowing, fire-eating, and chainsaw juggling.2014, Louis J. Parascandola, John Parascandola -, A Coney Island Reader: Through Dizzy Gates of Illusion, →ISBN, page 306. From the entry blockhead
Like an old-time sideshow, the acts included lying on a bed of nails, blockheading and, of course, fire-eating.2007, Frank Cullen, Florence Hackman, Donald McNeilly, Vaudeville old & new: an encyclopedia of variety performances in America, →ISBN. From the entry blockhead
An American circus-goer, gazing at the tattooed man in the sideshow, relives his own past of untold centuries back.2002, Janet M. Davis, The Circus Age: Culture & Society Under the American Big Top, →ISBN, page 181. From the entry circus-goer
“Sideshows, dancing.” “And two beer-tents,” said Nabby Adams.1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 101. From the entry beer tent
Police say there were multiple sideshows and they did respond to at least one with mutual aid from Solano and Napa County Sheriff's offices and American Canyon Police.2024 September 30, J.R. Stone, “Vallejo neighbors angry after sideshow participants climb up and damage their roof”, in KGO-TV, archived…. From the entry Napa County

Meaning of sideshow

noun A minor attraction at a larger event such as a circus, fair or music festival.
noun An incidental spectacle that diverts attention from a larger concern.
noun An incident in which drivers block traffic to perform stunts like donuts and burnouts for an extended period of time.

Full definition of sideshow

Questions about sideshow in a sentence

How do you use sideshow in a sentence?: Sideshow is used as a noun. For example: “The sideshow feat was just a gaff, but the audience was too proud to admit they'd been fooled.”
What is a short sentence with sideshow?: “Entertainment features and sideshows enhanced attendance.”
What does sideshow mean?: Sideshow means a minor attraction at a larger event such as a circus, fair or music festival.

Adapted from Wiktionary: sideshow (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use sideshow in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/sideshow. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.