Word.ws English Dictionary

steal the show

steal the show verb: to be the best performer during a performance.

Verb

steal the show (third-person singular simple present steals the show, present participle stealing the show, simple past stole the show, past participle stolen the show)

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To be the best performer during a performance.
    • And it was Lampard who stole the show with a vintage performance to silence some of his recent critics.2011 October 2, Jonathan Jurejko, “Bolton 1 - 5 Chelsea”, in BBC Sport
    Synonyms:
    steal the scene

Synonyms of steal the show

Forms of steal the show

third-person singular presentsteals the show
present participlestealing the show
paststole the show
past participlestolen the show

Questions about steal the show

What does steal the show mean?
Steal the show means to be the best performer during a performance.
What part of speech is steal the show?
Steal the show is a verb.
What is the past tense of steal the show?
The past tense of steal the show is stole the show.

Words near steal the show in the dictionary

  1. steal someone's heart
  2. steal someone's identity
  3. steal someone's thunder
  4. steal the bacon
  5. steal the scene
  6. steal the show
  7. steal up
  8. stealability
  9. stealable
  10. stealables
  11. stealage

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: steal the show (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-steal the show.ogg.

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