n. A popular 18th- and 19th-century form of theatre entertainment whereby ghostly apparitions are formed; a magic lantern.
n. A series of events involving rapid changes in light intensity and colour.
n. A dreamlike state where real and imagined elements are blurred together.
the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
n. An optical effect produced by a magic lantern. The figures are painted in transparent colors, and all the rest of the glass is opaque black. The screen is between the spectators and the instrument, and the figures are often made to appear as in motion, or to merge into one another.
n. The apparatus by which such an effect is produced.
n. Fig.: A medley of figures; illusive images.
The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
n. A fantastic series or medley of illusive or terrifying figures or images.
n. Specifically
n. An exhibition of images or pictures by the agency of light and shadow, as by the magic lantern or the stereopticon; especially, such an exhibition so arranged by a combination of two lanterns or lenses that every view dissolves or merges gradually into the next.
n. The apparatus by means of which such an exhibition is produced; a magic lantern or a stereopticon.
WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
n. a constantly changing medley of real or imagined images (as in a dream)
Word Usage
""Densely composed and outrageously Freudian, Brand Upon the Brain! offers psychosexual anxiety, resurrection, vampirism, and the kind of phantasmagoria that exists only in the mind of a playful visionary," writes Fernando F Croce at Slant."