Word.ws English Dictionary

show trials

show trials is the plural of show trial.

Meaning of show trial

Noun

show trial (plural show trials)

  1. A trial held for appearance's sake, but whose verdict is predetermined, especially a "guilty" verdict with the purpose of making an example of the accused.
    • We demand an end to these "Revere" showtrials. The indictments were drawn through forced testimony of gay youth and coerced testimony of gay men. The indictments were inspired by those seeking to use homophobia for political purposes. The trial is now being used by those who would exploit hatred of...1978 December 23, John Mitzel, Charley Shively, Ed Hougen, Tom Reeves, “Boston/Boise Committee”, in Gay Community News, volume 6, number 22, page 5

Questions about show trials

What is show trials the plural of?
Show trials is the plural of show trial.

Words near show trials in the dictionary

  1. show time
  2. show times
  3. show towel
  4. show towels
  5. show trial
  6. show trials
  7. show tune
  8. show tunes
  9. show up
  10. show who's boss
  11. show who's the boss

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: show trials (page history and authors); show trial (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “show trials.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/show_trials. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.