OXFORD 9000
📚 noun • entry_id 49584

bread and circuses

/ˈbɹɛd ənd ˈsəː.kəs.əz/
Meanings (ES + gloss)
pan y circo
Food and entertainment provided by the state, particularly if intended to placate the people.
Take a Mahommedan at his devotions, and he is a model of religious abstraction; [...] but see him in his hours of relaxation, or on the occasion of a public holiday, and he is as g…
The government of William Ewart Gladstone may not supply the people, as the Roman emperors did, with "bread and circuses," but if giving them plenty to talk about can satisfy a nat…
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