English · Idiom Attested

steal the show

In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Attract attention away from the main thing.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Lôi kéo sự chú ý khỏi điều chính

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

As ever, although one shoe steals the show, there six a healthy supporting cast of new characters in the top selling technical range.

An opinion endorsed by not a few others who whispered among themselves — some of them when Amabel was not listening, others when she very obviously was — that Linnet Gage had stolen the show.

British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).

Common questions

What does “steal the show” mean?

Attract attention away from the main thing.

Is “steal the show” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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