booth

Everyday

1. A small, partly closed place for one person or a small group, such as a phone booth or voting booth. tree →
2. A small stall at a fair or market where things are sold or shown. tree →
3. A table in a restaurant with high-backed seats around it. tree →
4. A small room for a special job, such as a ticket booth or toll booth. tree →

In the lessons

In everyday life: photo booth, ticket booth, phone booth, voting booth, toll booth. At school fairs, booths sell cakes or games. In maths problems, a booth might sell tickets or snacks.

Examples

• We sat in a booth at the diner. tree →
• The ticket booth opens at nine. tree →
• Our class ran a lemonade booth at the fair. tree →
• Dad paid at the toll booth on the motorway. tree →
• We took funny pictures in the photo booth. tree →
• People vote in a private booth. tree →
• A few miserable-looking wooden booths, for the accommodation of Dutch watermen, stood on the opposite shore. tree →

Note

Pronounced with a «th» at the end (rhymes with smooth or tooth). Plural: booths. Phone booths are now rare because of mobile phones.

In Jewish tradition

Here a booth is a rough shelter made from branches, used by herders and in the Feast of Booths. Later books also use it for a watchman's hut, a temporary shelter in a field, or a tent where kings feasted.

Interpretation. Tradition calls it a sukkah, and Jews live in one for seven days at the festival of Sukkot. It recalls the shelters of the years in the wilderness and God's care. Isaiah compares Jerusalem to a lonely booth in a vineyard, and Job compares the wicked man's house to a flimsy booth, both pictures of weakness.

Examples

• And Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built him a house, and made booths for his cattle. (Torah GEN.33.17, JPS 1917) tree →
• Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are home-born in Israel shall dwell in booths; (Torah LEV.23.42, JPS 1917) tree →
• that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. (Torah LEV.23.43, JPS 1917) tree →
• He buildeth his house as a moth, and as a booth which the keeper maketh. (Writings JOB.27.18, JPS 1917) tree →
• But Ben-hadad was drinking himself drunk in the booths, he and the kings, the thirty and two kings that helped him. (Prophets 1KI.20.16, JPS 1917) tree →
• And the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. (Prophets ISA.1.8, JPS 1917) tree →

Note

Pronounced with a «th» at the end (rhymes with smooth or tooth). Plural: booths. Phone booths are now rare because of mobile phones.