Shakespeare

Proper noun

1. William Shakespeare, an English playwright and poet of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries
2. His works or media adaptations of his works.

Usage notes

(William Shakespeare) Note that Shakespeare's manuscripts use a great many different spellings of his surname, way too many to list here. (At the time, some name spellings were much more variable than today, see Spelling of Shakespeare's name for a list.)

Derived terms

• Shakespearean

Full definition of Shakespeare

Noun

1. (uncountable) Eloquent language, especially English; poetry.
• 1979, Oct 10, Russell Maker, Highbrows Ruin Baseball's Language, This may not be poetry, but in competition with "Ryan has good velocity and excellent location" it is pure Shakespeare.
2. (countable) A playwright of the standing of William Shakespeare
• 1997 Vivien Allen, "Hall Caine: portrait of a Victorian romancer‎"Caine, he said, might be a budding Shakespeare but in Shakespeare's time all it took to put on a play was a barn, a crude stage, ...