bring the house down
Earn thunderous applause
To bring the house down is to elicit thunderous applause or laughter from an audience—a performance so successful the building itself seems to shake: Her final number brought the house down.
The phrase comes from theater, where house means the audience or auditorium.
- smash hitOverwhelming popular success
- curtain callPost-show audience acknowledgment
- ovationExtended audience applause
- wild applauseFrenzied audience acclaim
- encoreAudience-demanded extra performance
tour de force · blockbuster · steal the show · knock out · applause · laughter · showstopper · blow away · electrify · slay · kill it · performance · comedian · masterpiece · roar · dazzle · standing ovation · acclaim