stage whisper

plural stage whispers · alternative stage-whisper

1. entertainmentA line that is performed on stage as if it were whispered, but is spoken loud enough for the audience to hear.

   "Pretty legs," said Rebo in a stage whisper as Peter slowed down.

   2001, Shelley Freydont, High Seas Murder, page 326

   3 more examples

   '[…]When the division was announced, he chuckled exceedingly, and in a stage whisper exclaimed, "Grey is check-mated !" '

   1869, “Lives of Lord Lyndhurst and Lord Brougham”, in The Edinburgh Review, volume CXXIX, pages 568–569

   Near to the audience the stage whisper was not much louder, although more distinct, than an ordinary whisper in private life.

   1887, Sir Frederick Pollock, Personal Remembrances of Sir Frederick Pollock, page 248

   Perhaps because of this, the convention of the 'stage whisper' came into being. All that distinguishes it from the true whisper is that a very little amount of voice in introduced and so what you end up with is extremely breathy voice production[…]

   1998, Michael McCallion, The Voice Book, page 189

2. broadlyAny loud whisper intended to be overheard.

present singular third person stage whispers · participle present stage whispering · participle past stage whispered · past stage whispered · alternative stage-whisper

1. entertainmentTo perform a stage whisper.

   There is some evidence to suggest that in whispered speech, particularly stage whispered speech, the larynx is raised appreciably.

   4 more examples

   The duet was embellished with stage-whispered solos [...]

   1878, Things in General, volume 2, p. 132

   “The captain's voice, by G–!” said the stage-whispering ruffian, and both robbers fled by the way of the back door, shutting off their bull's-eye as they ran.

   1883, Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi, chapter 31 "A Thumb-print and What Came of It"

   [...] Bobbie sprang at me like a leopardess. “What on earth are you fooling about for like this, Bertie?” she stage-whispered.

   1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XVI, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC

   Into this melodrama stepped the American defence secretary, Leon Panetta. He stopped in both countries, urged both sides to get along better and affirmed America’s pledge of mutual defence with Japan—though an unnamed senior American military official stage-whispered to the Washington Post that America wouldn’t go to war “over a rock”.

   2012 September 22, “East Asian rivalry: protesting too much”, in The Economist