Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A glass-paneled cabinet or case for displaying articles such as china, objets d'art, or fine merchandise.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A show-case; a case or inclosure of glass for the display of delicate articles, whether in a museum, a private house, or a shop.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A glass show case for displaying fine wares, specimens, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A glass-paneled cabinet or case, especially for displaying articles such as china, objets d'art, or fine merchandise.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a glass container used to store and display items in a shop or museum or home

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from vitre, pane of glass, from Old French, glass, window with multiple lights, from Latin vitrum.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French vitrine, from vitre ("pane of glass"), from Old French, from Latin vitrum ("glass").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word vitrine.

Examples

  • The pieces have a shadow box feel to them because each episode is contained in some kind of vitrine like container, including a large suspended sphere that is a whole world unto itself.

    Tracey Harnish: Devastation of the American Dream Tracey Harnish 2011

  • "Doin' It in Public: Feminism and Art at the Woman's Building" through Jan. 28 at the Otis College of Art and Design, for instance, would probably be an amen-corner jumble were it not for the time, womanpower and scrutiny the gallery was able to give to wall upon wall, and vitrine upon vitrine, of primary source material from the mid-'70s salad days of the women's movement in the Los Angeles art world.

    Laying Claim to Its Place in the Sun Peter Plagens 2011

  • In one encapsulated vitrine, we see a woman with a suitcase leading two children through a forest.

    Tracey Harnish: Devastation of the American Dream Tracey Harnish 2011

  • In one encapsulated vitrine, we see a woman with a suitcase leading two children through a forest.

    Tracey Harnish: Devastation of the American Dream Tracey Harnish 2011

  • The pieces have a shadow box feel to them because each episode is contained in some kind of vitrine like container, including a large suspended sphere that is a whole world unto itself.

    Tracey Harnish: Devastation of the American Dream Tracey Harnish 2011

  • The pieces have a shadow box feel to them because each episode is contained in some kind of vitrine like container, including a large suspended sphere that is a whole world unto itself.

    Tracey Harnish: Devastation of the American Dream Tracey Harnish 2011

  • Either way, it feels like a privilege to be able to pick up and leaf through such an extensive display rather than gaze mutely at it through the glass of a vitrine.

    April « 2009 « Squares of Wheat 2009

  • A glass vitrine of bullets spells out the ranks of the Sudanese army.

    The Museum of Unexploded Bombs « Squares of Wheat 2010

  • Either way, it feels like a privilege to be able to pick up and leaf through such an extensive display rather than gaze mutely at it through the glass of a vitrine.

    Something concrete « Squares of Wheat 2009

  • In one encapsulated vitrine, we see a woman with a suitcase leading two children through a forest.

    Tracey Harnish: Devastation of the American Dream Tracey Harnish 2011

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • From "Au Tombeau de Charles Fourier" by Guy Davenport

    January 19, 2010