picture show

Short for motion-picture show. Although the collocation per se (noun adjunct + noun) predates motion pictures, previously having referred occasionally to the display of collections of illustrations, its status as a compound noun comes from its motion-picture sense.

picture show (plural picture shows)

1. (dated) Synonym of movie.
   • 1960 July 11, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC:

     His family was from Maycomb County originally, his mother worked for a photographer in Meridian, had entered his picture in a Beautiful Child contest and won five dollars. She gave the money to Dill, who went to the picture show twenty times on it.