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Definition of Peanut gallery
1. Noun. (figurative) people whose criticisms are regarded as irrelevant or insignificant (resembling uneducated people who throw peanuts on the stage to express displeasure with a performance). "He ignored complaints from the peanut gallery"
2. Noun. Rearmost or uppermost area in the balcony containing the least expensive seats.
Generic synonyms: Area
Group relationships: Balcony
Definition of Peanut gallery
1. Noun. (historical) The upper balcony in a racially segregated venues such as a theatre to which black patrons were restricted.''Listening to America: An Illustrated History of Words and Phrases from Our Lively and Splendid Past'' by Stuart Berg Flexner (1982; Simon and Schuster; ISBN 0671248952, 9780671248956), [ page 438]
??''Peanut gallery'' was in use in the 1880s, as a synonym for ''nigger gallery'' (1840s) or ''nigger heaven'' (1870s), the upper balcony where blacks sat, as in segregated theaters. ¹
2. Noun. (idiomatic) Any source of heckling, unwelcome commentary or criticism, especially from a know-it-all or of an inexpert nature. ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Lexicographical Neighbors of Peanut Gallery
Literary usage of Peanut gallery
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. The South Mobilizing for Social Service: Addresses Delivered at the Southern by James Edward McCulloch (1913)
"Another reports one air dome (low resort), one moving picture show with vaudeville
attachment; "negroes admitted to peanut gallery in white theaters; ..."
2. The Human Way: Addresses on Race Problems at the Southern Sociological by James Edward McCulloch (1913)
"Another reports one air dome (low resort), one moving picture show with vaudeville
attachment; "negroes admitted to peanut gallery in white theaters; ..."
3. Adventures in Interviewing by Isaac Frederick Marcosson (1919)
"We were so numerous that we almost filled the "Peanut" gallery, as it was known.
Our particular favourite was Julia Marlowe. When she came along we turned ..."
4. Europe Viewed Through American Spectacles by Charles Carroll Fulton (1874)
"... that we could see nothing worth seeing from this position, in what we would
call the "peanut gallery" at home, we respectfully declined the proposal. ..."
5. The US Virgin Islands Alive! by Harriet Greenberg, Douglas Greenberg (2006)
"peanut gallery Sportfishing The Peanut, a 28-foot prowler with state-of-the-art
electronics, is powered by twin engines. Light tackle fishing 45 minutes to ..."
6. The Bookman (1896)
"A reviewer might praise it for the originality of its situation, which throws
the problem into a stage light so strong that even the peanut gallery could ..."
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