noun

• 1informal, dated A jukebox, originally one operated by the insertion of a nickel coin.

  More example sentences

  • ‘She devotes loving attention to her orchestra, and especially to the coin-operated nickelodeon, the earliest version of a juke box.’
  • ‘An equivalent system is the punched-hole stack of connected cards used in a pianola, or the rotating slotted-metal disk in a nickelodeon, where the music is being played in response to the arrangement of the holes.’
  • ‘This sounds like I'm describing the days of crystal-set radios and hand-cranked nickelodeons, I know.’
  • ‘Songs well up from the subliminal nickelodeon in my head.’
  • ‘Well, it's based on this Tijuana nickelodeon machine.’

• 2historical A cinema with an admission fee of one nickel.

  ‘Another sound in the nickelodeons was the murmur of immigrant voices translating aloud the titles into the languages of Europe.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Before long, thousands of nickelodeons popped up in cities across the country, ushering in a new era of the motion picture as profit-making industry, entertainment for the masses and pop culture juggernaut.’
  • ‘In working class neighborhoods, children and teenagers flocked to the cheap storefront movie theaters, called nickelodeons, where even at night only a minority of the audience were adults.’
  • ‘Italian theaters and music halls, for example, largely gave way to vaudeville, nickelodeons, organized sports, and radio programming.’
  • ‘In 1918, the Chicago Motion Picture Commission heard evidence of the pernicious effect nickelodeons were having on America's youth.’

  Synonyms

  movie theatre, movie house