ménagerie

plural ménageries

1. alternativeAlternative form of menagerie.

   In such a ménagerie of travellers, one occasionally meets with most desirable company, but caution and selection are needful, and in this matter our party was fortunate.

   1876, William Young Martin, “Egypt”, in The East: Being a Narrative of Personal Impressions of a Tour in Egypt, Palestine, and Syria. […], London: Tinsley Brothers, […], page 22

   3 more examples

   In one of his flights, he happened to alight in the middle of a ménagerie of peacocks. […] Just at this moment the master of the ménagerie called his birds into a little inclosure, that he might give them their breakfast. […] There was a pond in the middle of the ménagerie, that served him for a looking-glass.

   1818, Edward Baldwin [pseudonym; William Godwin], “The Daw and the Borrowed Feathers”, in Fables, Ancient and Modern. Adapted for the Use of Children. […], 2nd American edition, Philadelphia, Pa.: […] Benjamin Warner, […], page 74

   Viperine venom was fixed upon, as being powerful enough to ensure a counteracting affection; and nine live vipers were procured from Prince Napoleon Jerome Buonaparte, who keeps a ménagerie of those animals for philosophical purposes.

   1844 July, J[ohn] G[eorge] Francis, “Florence”, in Notes from a Journal Kept in Italy and Sicily, during the Years 1844, 1845, and 1846. […], London: […] Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, […], published 1847, page 33

   People grew accustomed to the announcement of their names, the sight of their faces and sound of their voices, as to the quadrilles of Laurent’s Orchestra, or the ices of Gunter; and in the orchid-house-atmosphere of ministerial Soirées, amidst a confusion of tongues capable of deafening an artilleryman or the keeper of a ménagerie, the two sisters,—the most rising nobodies of the day,—might be heard sympathising cheerfully with Lady Brookdale concerning the annoyance likely to arise to poor Mrs. Warwick, from the death of her fellow-passenger in the Lightning!

   1858, [Catherine] Gore, chapter XIII, in Heckington. […], volume III, London: Hurst and Blackett, […], page 257