goldfish bowl

a goldfish bowl

A place, situation, or environment in which one has little or no privacy. A reference to the (typically) spherical bowls in which pet fish are often kept, which can be seen into from all sides. One of the prices of success for a pop star is having to live in a goldfish bowl under the scrutiny of the public eye. I feel like I'm in a goldfish bowl working at this new company, with all their security cameras posted everywhere.
See also: bowl, goldfish
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

goldfish bowl

A situation affording no privacy, as in Being in a goldfish bowl comes with the senator's job-there's no avoiding it. The glass bowl allowing one to view goldfish from every direction was transferred first, in the 1920s, to a police interrogation room equipped with a one-way mirror. By the mid-1900s the expression was being used more broadly.
See also: bowl, goldfish
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

goldfish bowl

a place or situation lacking privacy.
See also: bowl, goldfish
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • a fishbowl
  • a goldfish bowl
  • bowl
  • goldfish
  • pet hate
  • your, his, etc. pet hate
  • rain stopped play
  • be on the warpath
  • be/go on the warpath
  • in/with reference to
References in periodicals archive
MANY people in Wales keep their fish in tiny goldfish bowls. What's wrong with that I hear you say?
Goldfish deserve our compassion; LETTERS
There were quotes out at the time of him leaving suggesting he did not like the goldfish bowl.
Big step up for the new boy
She told the audience at Cheltenham Town Hall she was not planning a sequel to The Goldfish Bowl.
Cherie lets election date clue slip out
It goes like this: You dump the inkwell (toxic discharge from industry and sewage systems) into the goldfish bowl (ocean) and the fish all turn belly up and the bowl is without fish.
Something fishy?
* AMC Pacer: The car masquerading as a goldfish bowl, its unique bulbous glass rear end was a styling cue that was hard to miss.
Nerd cars capture special market. (Property/Casualty: Marketplace)
After discussing these works, we decided to make a "cut-out" reproduction of Matisse's painting, The Goldfish Bowl. We talked about how artists are inspired by other artists' works.
GOLDFISH BOWLS: Inspired by Matisse
It also is less likely to succeed in the goldfish bowl of contemporary Washington.
EISENHOWER
In Studio V of 1949-50, its soaring flight can even set into uplifting, vibrant motion the goldfish bowl and its watery prisoner in the lower right corner; and as the poet Pierre Reverdy observed, the shape of the generic bird seems to rhyme with that of the still relatively earthbound palette below it.
"Braque: The Late Works." (Georges Braque, Royal Academy, London, England)
KARLAN GRANT has taken advice from Lee Bowyer to cope with the goldfish bowl of Premier League life as he settles in at Huddersfield Town.
TOWN KAR DRIVEN BY BOWYER
I also noticed that the offices where you can have an appointment to see someone are like a goldfish bowl where everyone could see you - no privacy whatsoever.
See sense and save our building society branch
But the goldfish bowl that was displayed beside him when he delivered his annual Now Ruz message pointedly contained no goldfish.
Rohani shows his green side; abandons goldfish
WE LOVE REALITY CELEBRITY BIG BROTHER (Channel 5, 9pm) TIME for another motley crew of celebrities to enter the goldfish bowl that is the Big Brother house.
WE LOVE REALITY CELEBRITY BIG [...]
NEIL LENNON is enjoying life outside the Glasgow goldfish bowl and the relativeanonymity of being Bolton boss.
Now Lennon can imagine; THE FA CUP Bolton v Liverpool FOURTH-ROUND REPLAY; BOSS NEIL GLAD TO BE SCOT FREE AFTER CELTIC
Being in such a goldfish bowl can do strange things to players.
Lionel won't Messi up now
I'm surprised he dropped his guard while knowing Glasgow is a goldfish bowl.
Ally's karaoke calamity