Idiom
exit stage left
Meaning
An orderly and uneventful departure, timed so as not to detract or distract.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“The meeting became boring, so I decided to exit stage left.”
“He sees his ex-girlfriend at the party and decides to exit stage left.”
“When the argument between my coworkers started to get heated, I decided it was time to exit stage left.”
“The lead singer finished her final song and chose to exit stage left before the crowd could ask for an encore.”
“After the CEO finished the brief announcement, she let the managers handle the questions and made a quiet exit stage left.”
“Sensing that his presence was no longer required at the tense negotiation, he quietly gathered his papers and chose to exit stage left.”
Examples
simple
“The meeting became boring, so I decided to exit stage left.”
“He sees his ex-girlfriend at the party and decides to exit stage left.”
contextual
“When the argument between my coworkers started to get heated, I decided it was time to exit stage left.”
“The lead singer finished her final song and chose to exit stage left before the crowd could ask for an encore.”
“After the CEO finished the brief announcement, she let the managers handle the questions and made a quiet exit stage left.”
complex
“Sensing that his presence was no longer required at the tense negotiation, he quietly gathered his papers and chose to exit stage left.”
Origin
From the theatrical script direction "Exit stage left," a notation used to mark the disappearance of a character from the stage in the normal manner. The instruction indicates the specific side of the performing area a character is to depart toward from the perspective of the actor. The phrase passed from technical stagecraft into general usage to denote an orderly or expected departure.
Key words
Related idioms
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