what the butler saw

名词 n.

英文释义

名词 n.
  1. A story or film of titillating activity observed by voyeurism. UK,attributive,often,slang
    — For the next fifteen years he would make some 500 short films there – conjuring turns, fairy stories, burlesques, what-the-butler-saws, literary adaptations, fantastic voyages and reconstructed newsreels – of which about a fifth have survived.
  2. A mutoscope; an amusement machine that shows a sequence of images or animation, often of a titillating nature, viewed via a peephole UK,attributive
    — There are two main types­—the machine working on the "What the butler saw" principle, where a knob is turned for the answer and the next exciting instalment, and "a programmed text- book" with questions on one side of the page and answers covered up by a flap on the other

词形变化

what-the-butler-saw alternative

词源

Usually linked to the 1884 divorce trial of Gertrude Elizabeth Blood and Lord Colin Campbell, at which one key witness was a butler who claimed to have seen Lady Campbell's adultery through a keyhole.
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