Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

  Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#COMMANDPERFORMANCE

Noun

command performance (plural command performances)Category:English lemmas#COMMANDPERFORMANCECategory:English nouns#COMMANDPERFORMANCECategory:English countable nouns#COMMANDPERFORMANCECategory:English multiword terms#COMMANDPERFORMANCECategory:English entries with incorrect language header#COMMANDPERFORMANCECategory:Pages with entries#COMMAND%20PERFORMANCECategory:Pages with 1 entry#COMMAND%20PERFORMANCE

1. (archaicCategory:English terms with archaic senses#COMMANDPERFORMANCE) A dramatic, musical, or similar entertainment performed before a monarch or other head of state, especially in a circumstance where that ruler has requested or ordered the performance.
   • c. 1900, Richard Harding Davis, Billy and the Big Stick:

     "I've been giving a ‘command’ performance for the president," explained the actor modestly.

     Category:English terms with quotations#COMMANDPERFORMANCE

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
   • 1974 February 4, “People”, in Time:

     Following a 1973 White House command performance and a TV special, Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back, Sinatra made his first nightclub appearance in three years at Las Vegas' Caesars Palace.

     Category:English terms with quotations#COMMANDPERFORMANCE

   • 1998 October 4, Alvin Klein, “Theater: A Potential New Star For an Ever-Rarer Art”, in New York Times, retrieved 11 October 2011:

     And he won't let his audience forget that he was part of a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II in June.

     Category:English terms with quotations#COMMANDPERFORMANCE

2. (idiomaticCategory:English idioms#COMMANDPERFORMANCE, by extension) A task, activity, or other assignment which one undertakes in order to satisfy someone in authority, such as an employer.
   • 2002, Susan Wittig Albert, Indigo Dying, Penguin, published 2004, →ISBN, page 26:

     Some big client of Arthur's is coming to town, and Sally is supposed to entertain the man's wife. She says it's a command performance.

     Category:English terms with quotations#COMMANDPERFORMANCE

References

• “command performance”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.