byplay

See also: by-play

English

Alternative forms

• by-play

Etymology

by- +‎ play

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

byplay (countable and uncountable, plural byplays)

1. (theater) Any action, carried out onstage during a performance, apart from the main action.
   • 1959 October, Cecil J. Allen, “Locomotive Running Past and Present”, in Trains Illustrated, page 477:

     [...] there had been some amusing byplay with the enginemen as to what might be expected to happen if the engines failed to behave themselves properly.

   • 1983, Frank Northen Magill, Magill's American film guide, volume 1, page 647:

     The father-son byplay is occasionally overdone and tedious, but there is a genuine warmth in both the Oland-Luke and the Toler-Sen Yung teamings.

2. Any action, by supporting actor.

Translations

any action carried out onstage during a performance, apart from the main action

• Italian: controscena f
• Manx: fo-chloie m

References

• “byplay”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.