show trial

noun

(especially in a totalitarian state) the public trial of a political offender conducted chiefly for propagandistic purposes, as to suppress further dissent against the government by making an example of the accused.

show trial

noun

a trial conducted primarily to make a particular impression on the public or on other nations, esp one that demonstrates the power of the state over the individual

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Word History and Origins

Origin of show trial¹

First recorded in 1945–50

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Musk, whose band of roving nerd-assassins is conducting something like a large-scale Stalinist show trial of the entire federal bureaucracy, called Navarro a “moron” who was “dumber than a sack of bricks.”

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Vardanyan has been dealt with separately, but many in Armenia see all the cases as show trials.

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As with leaders of autocratic regimes, nothing is too small or insignificant to serve as pretext for a grand show trial meant to demonstrate strong-man dominance over the military.

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“I grew up in Miami listening to the stories about the Castro show trials in Cuba,” Florida’s politically pliant Republican senator, Marco Rubio, wailed in Trump’s defense.

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He has rejected the charges against him as punishment for standing up to Putin and likened the proceedings to the show trials under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

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