marquee

[mahr-kee] /mɑrˈki/
noun
1.
a tall rooflike projection above a theater entrance, usually containing the name of a currently featured play or film and its stars.
2.
a rooflike shelter, as of glass, projecting above an outer door and over a sidewalk or a terrace.
3.
Also, marquess, marquise. British. a large tent or tentlike shelter with open sides, especially one for temporary use in outdoor entertainments, receptions, etc.
adjective
4.
superlative; headlining:
a marquee basketball player.
Origin
1680-90; assumed singular of marquise, taken as plural
Can be confused
marque, marquee, marquess, marquis, marquise.
Examples from the web for marquee
  • Now, the managers of some marquee companies are aiming to make this concession permanent.
  • The season of the darkened marquee is suddenly becoming the season of the booking bonanza.
  • The university also sported a marquee basketball program that galvanized fan support in a state with no professional teams.
  • Symmetrical wings flank a grand pavilion and arched entryway with a marquee.
  • They have marquee names, make appearances, draw crowds.
  • It wasn't interested in cooperating, especially if it meant hobbling what had quickly become its marquee product.
  • The marquee has already been restored by a real-estate company as part of an apartment-complex promotion.
  • Throughout the seventies and eighties, he was a marquee name on college syllabi, the closest thing academia had to a rock star.
  • It's a big day for college football, with several marquee matchups.
  • The large menagerie of life-size farm animals that graced the store's marquee for decades is gone.
British Dictionary definitions for marquee

marquee

/mɑːˈkiː/
noun
1.
a large tent used for entertainment, exhibition, etc
2.
(mainly US & Canadian) Also called marquise. a canopy over the entrance to a theatre, hotel, etc
3.
(modifier) (mainly US & Canadian) celebrated or pre-eminent: a marquee player
Word Origin
C17 (originally an officer's tent): invented singular form of marquise, erroneously taken to be plural
Word Origin and History for marquee
n.

1680s, "large tent," from French marquise (mistaken in English as a plural) "linen canopy placed over an officer's tent to distinguish it from others,' " fem. of marquis (see marquis), and perhaps indicating "a place suitable for a marquis." Sense of "canopy over the entrance to a hotel or theater, etc." first recorded 1912 in American English.

Slang definitions & phrases for marquee

marquee

adjective

Famous and influential; star; stellar: Sawyer is likely to escalate demands from other marquee names/ When you play a marquee player like Shaquille O'Neal, if you block his shot, you want to let him know

modifier

Publicity; hype: That Pasolini was offered these public forums suggests that there was a certain marquee value attached to his name

[late 1980s+; fr the important names featured on a theater marquee]