noun
A tightrope walker.
‘The masked funambulist Ginés de Pasamonte was disguised as the puppeteer Master Pedro?’- ‘Then, from one generation the next, the Venetians battled the elements like funambulists walking a tight-rope.’
- ‘After all, both men were both expert funambulists, having risen to the rank of Black Belt in the Ringling Brothers School of Aerial Arts.’
- ‘These acts, which range from trampoline performers to high wire funambulists, provide audience members with edge-of-your-seat excitement and pulse-pounding suspense.’
- ‘Other members of the cast of La Nouba include funambulists, dancers, tumblers, trapeze performers, equilibrists, clowns, actors, acrogymnasts, cyclists, musicians, vocalists and circus artists.’
- ‘Caillois looked to the funambulist for inspiration: he who ‘only succeeds if he is sure enough of himself to rely upon vertigo instead of trying to resist it.’’
- ‘Most of the banquets lasted 8-10 hours, with some pauses for a concert or a representation with clowns, circus and funambulists.’
- ‘Travelling spectacle represents the oldest tradition with showmen, funambulists, conjuring tricks and acrobatics.’
- ‘This is the first and only edition of the first treatise about acrobats and funambulists.’
- ‘On August 7, 1974, French funambulist Petit, then 24, performed an astonishing high-wire act on a cable that he and his accomplices had surreptitiously rigged between the north and south towers of the World Trade Center.’
- ‘Jean Francois Gravelet, aka Charles Blondin, was considered to be one of the greatest funambulists (aerialists/tightrope-walkers) of all time.’
tumbler, gymnast
Origin
Late 18th century from French funambule or Latin funambulus (from funis ‘rope’ + ambulare ‘to walk’) + -ist.
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