spectacle

An exciting or extraordinary scene, exhibition, performance etc.

The horse race was a thrilling spectacle.

VVith ſcoffes and ſcornes, and contumelious taunts, / In open Market-place produc't they me, / To be a publique ſpectacle to all: / Here, ſayd they, is the Terror of the French, / The Scar-Crovv that affrights our Children ſo.

An embarrassing or unedifying scene or situation.

He made a spectacle out of himself.

The brille of a snake.

A frame with different coloured lenses on a semaphore signal through which light from a lamp shines at night, often a part of the signal arm.