zoetropehttp://www.oed.com/dictionary/zoetrope_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_usezoetrope, n.
Revised 2017

zoetropenoun

  1. 1866–
    An optical device or toy consisting of a cylinder with a series of pictures on the inner surface that, when viewed through slits with the cylinder rotating, give an impression of continuous motion.
    1. 1866
      See the Zoetrope, a wonderful Optical Illusion, at Baldwin's Bazaar.
      Indianapolis Daily Journal 3 December 8/4
    2. 1869
      And, also, with amusement rife, A ‘Zoetrope, or Wheel of Life’.
      W. S. Gilbert, Bab Ballads 14
    3. 1872
      The curious toy called the thaumatrope or ‘Zootrope’ or ‘wheel of life’.
      T. H. Huxley, Lessons in Elementary Physiology (ed. 6) x. 245
    4. 1916
      The zootrope or bioscope became familiar everywhere.
      H. Münsterberg, Photoplay i. 8
    5. 1961
      The thaumatrope, the phenakistiscope, the zoetrope, and the tachyscope..are the steps by which the modern cinema climbed to its present perfection.
      Glasgow Herald 13 July 6/4
    6. 1975
      What you get are outlines and black-and-white images on heavy paper, ready to cut out and make up into a zoetrope or a praxinoscope.
      Scientific American December 134/2
    7. 2003
      The thought gnawed at my heart: everything I had done, a collection of postcards, like a zoetrope made to resemble motion while turning in circles.
      W. Ferguson, Hokkaido Highway Blues (abridged edition) 203

zoetrope, n. was revised in September 2017.

zoetrope, n. was last modified in July 2023.