bring down the house
Earn thunderous applause
To bring down the house is to elicit thunderous applause or uproarious laughter from an audience.
The phrase suggests a response so overwhelming it could collapse the theater: Her encore brought down the house.
Sometimes shortened to bring the house down.
- playRecreation or staged drama
- live performanceUnrecorded staged entertainment
- ovationExtended audience applause
- hamCured pig thigh
- applauseCollective hand-clapping approval
thunderous applause · curtain call · take a bow · showstopper · performance · audience · laughter · hit · headliner · enact · figure of speech · encore · steal the show · blockbuster · represent · entertain · comic timing · impersonate
- constructionconstruction site, building site, hammer, building, beam
- theaterplays, stage, play, onstage, acting
performance success
bring down the housebomb
Explosive device or disaster
flop · tank · crash and burn · lay an egg · underwhelm
bring, brings, bringing, brought, bringer, downer, downs, downed, downing