[mod. f. Gr. κόσμ-ος world + ὄρᾱμα spectacle. Also mod. Fr.]

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  1.  A peep-show containing characteristic views of all parts of the world.

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  Originally the title given to a public exhibition in Regent Street, London; afterwards taken by other shows of ‘all the world in a box.’

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1823.  Blackw. Mag., XIV. 473. The whole beats panorama, and cosmorama, and Covent-Garden scenery to boot.

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1836–9.  Dickens, Sk. Boz, Vauxhall by day. The temples and saloons and cosmoramas and fountains glittered … before our eyes.

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1848–9.  Southey, Comm.-pl. Bk., IV. 715. Wax and composition casts … exhibited in the Cosmorama in Regent Street.

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  2.  transf. & fig. A peep-show of the world: in quot. 1852 applied to the Great Exhibition of 1851.

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1852.  Bp. Wordsworth, Occas. Serm., Ser. III. 26. In this Industrial Cosmorama, we do not see the names of many who have, perhaps, contributed most effectively to the production of the marvellous works.

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1881.  Myers, Wordsworth, i. 12. Between the operations of his spirit and the cosmorama of the external world.

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