backdrop

/ˌbækˈdrɑp/

/ˈbækdrɒp/

Other forms: backdrops

A backdrop is the scenery that hangs behind the actors in a play. You might help to paint the backdrop for your school's production of "The Sound of Music."

The backdrop is an important part of a theater production, since it provides a setting for a play or sets a mood for a musical performance. If you're watching a local version of "Oliver!" the backdrop might be designed to look like a London street scene, for example. The noun backdrop comes from US theater slang, from a combination of back and drop around 1913.

Definitions of backdrop

1. noun

   scenery hung at back of stage
   synonyms: backcloth, background

   type of:

   scene, scenery

   the painted structures of a stage set that are intended to suggest a particular locale