REHEARSAL

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does rehearsal mean? 

• REHEARSAL (noun)
  The noun REHEARSAL has 2 senses:

1. a practice session in preparation for a public performance (as of a play or speech or concert)

2. (psychology) a form of practice; repetition of information (silently or aloud) in order to keep it in short-term memory

  Familiarity information: REHEARSAL used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• REHEARSAL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A practice session in preparation for a public performance (as of a play or speech or concert)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

dry run; rehearsal

Context example:

a rehearsal will be held the day before the wedding

Hypernyms ("rehearsal" is a kind of...):

drill; exercise; practice; practice session; recitation (systematic training by multiple repetitions)

Domain category:

concert (a performance of music by players or singers not involving theatrical staging)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "rehearsal"):

dress rehearsal (a full uninterrupted rehearsal in costumes shortly before the first performance)

run-through (an uninterrupted rehearsal)

walk-through (a first perfunctory rehearsal of a theatrical production in which actors read their lines from the script and move as directed)

Derivation:

rehearse (engage in a rehearsal (of))

Sense 2

Meaning:

(psychology) a form of practice; repetition of information (silently or aloud) in order to keep it in short-term memory

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("rehearsal" is a kind of...):

drill; exercise; practice; practice session; recitation (systematic training by multiple repetitions)

Domain category:

psychological science; psychology (the science of mental life)

 Context examples 

To own the truth, Sir Thomas, we were in the middle of a rehearsal when you arrived this evening.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

"No, it's the toasting fork, with Mother's shoe on it instead of the bread. Beth's stage-struck!" cried Meg, and the rehearsal ended in a general burst of laughter.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

"It's a mere rehearsal of Much Ado about Nothing. Ladies, keep off, or I shall wax dangerous."

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

And they returned insistently, again and again, to a rehearsal of their first impressions of each other and to hopeless attempts to analyze just precisely what they felt for each other and how much there was of it.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Tom was enjoying such an advance towards the end; Edmund was in spirits from the morning's rehearsal, and little vexations seemed everywhere smoothed away.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

She had an instinctive sense of what was pleasing and proper, always said the right thing to the right person, did just what suited the time and place, and was so self-possessed that her sisters used to say, If Amy went to court without any rehearsal beforehand, she'd know exactly what to do.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Your cousin came too; and we had a rehearsal.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Ecclesford and its theatre, with its arrangements and dresses, rehearsals and jokes, was his never-failing subject, and to boast of the past his only consolation.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

“My indulgence shall be given, sir,” replied Sir Thomas gravely, “but without any other rehearsal.”

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Or why had not she rather gone to her own room, as she had felt to be safest, instead of attending the rehearsal at all?

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)