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pantomime a theatrical entertainment, mainly for children, which involves music, topical jokes, and slapstick comedy and is based on a fairy tale or nursery story, usually produced around Christmas. Modern British pantomime developed from the harlequinade and the cast typically includes a man in the chief comic female role (‘principal dame’), a woman in the main male role (‘principal boy’), and an animal played by actors in comic costume.

Pantomime is recorded from the late 16th century, and was first used in the Latin form and in the sense of an actor in Roman mime expressing meaning through gestures accompanied by movement. The current use developed in English in the mid 18th century.

pantomime Theatrical spectacle with its modern origins in early 18th-century France. It has come to mean a Christmas extravaganza, with music and comic actors. Popular in England by the 19th century, the ‘dame’ figure was traditionally played by a male actor and the principal boy by a female. The once-central Harlequin character now appears infrequently.

pantomime ancient Roman actor who performed in dumb show XVII; dramatic entertainment by gestures to a musical accompaniment; performance of a dramatized tale followed by a transformation scene and clowning XVIII. — F. pantomime or L. pantomīmus — Gr. pantómīmos adj. and sb.; see PANTO-, MIME. Abbrev. panto XIX.
So pantomimic XVII. — L.

pantomime (from Gk., ‘all imitating’).
1. Play in which artists use dumb show.

2. Mimed episode in larger work, e.g. in Ravel's ballet Daphnis et Chloé when story of Pan and Syrinx is mimed.

3. Type of Eng. stage show usually presented at the Christmas period, loosely based on a fairy-story, containing songs, and in former times concluding with harlequinade.