goldfish bowl en · NOUN
Pronunciation
Meanings
-
A transparent bowl in which pet fish are kept.
It seemed only a moment after Tom had decided that Sara must tell the truth that Alice came into the sitting-room to find the goldfish bowl broken in a thousand pieces and the gasping fish beating themselves on the floor.
1920, Mary Heaton Vorse, Growing Up:
-
(broadly, figuratively) Any place that lacks privacy, especially a room with a large window facing a public area.
"Because East Midlands Railway's HQ is here in Derby, we're rather in a goldfish bowl... and now there's the announcement that Derby will be the Great British Railway headquarters, so the goldfish bowl is about to get a whole lot bigger," he says.
2023 November 1, Nick Brodrick talks to Jason Cocker, “A station that "oozes" customer service...”, in RAIL, number 995, page 50:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| goldfish bowls | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Deriveds
guilty as a cat in a goldfish bowl
Synonyms
Translations (4)
pl kuliste akwarium (bowl in which fish are kept) · de Goldfischglas (bowl in which fish are kept) · fi kalamalja (bowl in which fish are kept) · ja 金魚鉢 (bowl in which fish are kept)