Advertisement - Continue reading below

Definition of "stage-manage" [stage-manage]

  • To serve as overall supervisor of the stage and actors for (a theatrical production). (verb-transitive)
  • To direct or manipulate from behind the scenes, as to achieve a desired effect; orchestrate: "felt certain that [the] demonstrations had ... been carefully stage-managed” ( Time). (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "stage-manage" in a sentence
  • "Remember that the GOP loves to stage-manage its "public" events - tickets distributed to the politically safe, people turned away (or arrested) because they're wearing the wrong t-shirt."
  • "The Parliament that Egyptians are now electing will draft a constitution, a process Egypt's interim military leadership has already tried to stage-manage several times, despite pushback from political parties."
  • "You would perhaps want to stage-manage an ultramodern assembly hall, a place to bring dignitaries to witness the moment when the Volt's mega battery pack — the piece on which all else depends — is united with the svelte chassis."