Stage-manage

verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To manage or organise the operation of a theatrical stage; to act as stage manager. literally
  2. 2
    To carefully control or direct (an event, operation, etc.) from the background, especially in a calculating manner, so as to achieve a particular desired appearance or outcome. figuratively

    "Bad practices were rife at the factory, but the boss stage-managed the inspectors' visit so that they did not see anything amiss."

Example

More examples

"Bad practices were rife at the factory, but the boss stage-managed the inspectors' visit so that they did not see anything amiss."

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.