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What is "walk-on"

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
walk-on
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a walk-on part (=a small part in which you do not have any words to say)
▪ She had had walk-on parts in a couple of soap operas.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Down near the basket, Karen is guarding Courtney Kanegae, a five-foot-two freshman walk-on.
▪ Five of their players are walk-ons.
▪ Gardner was a football walk-on at Nebraska, but quit the team in order to concentrate on wrestling.
▪ Mind, I did rehearse the walk-on, which is quite critical.
▪ The ending is a cinematic cop-out using newsreel photo-montage and a walk-on by Nelson Mandela.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
walk-on

"minor non-speaking role," 1902, theatrical slang, from the verbal phrase walk on, attested in theater jargon by 1897 with a sense "appear in crowd scenes," from walk (v.) + on (adv.). Meaning "actor who has such a part" is attested from 1946. The sports team sense is recorded from 1974.

Wiktionary
walk-on

n. 1 A student athlete that wants to try out for a college sports/athletic team without the benefit of a scholarship or having been recruited. 2 An actor of a small (or "bit part") part in a theatrical production or film, often without speaking lines. 3 Such a part in a play or film. Usually as '''walk-on''' role or '''walk-on''' part.

WordNet
walk-on

n. plays a small part in a dramatic production

walk-on

adj. not capable of or especially not involving speech or spoken lines; "had a nonspeaking role in the play" [syn: nonspeaking] [ant: speaking(a)]

Wikipedia
Walk-on (sports)

The term walk-on is used in sports, particularly American college athletics, to describe an athlete who becomes part of a team without being actively recruited beforehand or awarded an athletic scholarship. This results in the differentiation between "walk-on" players and "scholarship" players.

Usage examples of "walk-on".

Stanislavski or summer stock or college theater under their belts, fueled by Oscar fantasies but settling, a thousand cattle calls later, for the occasional walk-ons and crowd scenes and nonunion commercials that comprised 99.

Manhattan groundlings, extras and understudies, walk-ons and bit-part players, these unknown Earthlings.

Up on the stage, what looked like a cross between the cast of Robin Hood and the cast of Riverdance with a few walk-ons from Braveheart thrown in were making an almighty Celtic racket.

He rides herd on everybody: director, principals, walk-ons, arrangers, musicians, everybody.

Given the pomp and posturing surrounding her, she felt like a walk-on in Noises Off.

I walked back to the hotel through the crowds (here they come again) of Manhattan groundlings, extras and understudies, walk-ons and bit-part players, these unknown Earthlings.

A pathetic rdsumd with a couple of commercials, a handful of walk-ons, and a Icad in a three-act play that closed in Pittsburgh on opening night.