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Wordswarms From Years PastAdjacent Wordsgrosso modoGrossular Grossularia Grossulariaceae grossularite Grossulin Grosvenor grosz grosze groszy Grot Grote Grotesgue Groteskly grotesquely grotesqueness grotesquerie grotesquery Grotius Groton Grotowski grotto Grotto-work Grottoes grotty grouch Full-text Search for "Grotesque" 4309 |
Grotesque definitions
Webster's 1828 DictionaryGROTESQUE WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)adj Merriam Webster's
Britannica ConciseIn architecture and decorative art, a mural or sculptural decoration combining animal, human, and plant forms. The word derives from the Italian grottesco, in reference to the grottolike underground rooms (grotte) where such ornaments were found during the excavation of Roman buildings c.1500. The grotesque was revived in the Renaissance, and a fashion for it in 16th-cent. Italy quickly spread to the rest of Europe; it was used most frequently in fresco decoration (painted, carved, or molded) until the 19th cent. Oxford Reference Dictionaryadj. & n. --adj. 1 comically or repulsively distorted; monstrous, unnatural. 2 incongruous, ludicrous, absurd. --n. 1 a decorative form interweaving human and animal features. 2 a comically distorted figure or design. 3 Printing a family of sanserif typefaces. Derivatives: grotesquely adv. grotesqueness n. grotesquerie n. Etymology: earlier crotesque f. F crotesque f. It. grottesca grotto-like (painting etc.) fem. of grottesco (as GROTTO, -ESQUE) Webster's 1913 DictionaryGrotesque Gro*tesque, n. 1. A whimsical figure, or scene, such as is found in old crypts and grottoes. --Dryden. 2. Artificial grotto-work. Collin's Cobuild Dictionary(grotesques) 1. You say that something is grotesque when it is so unnatural, unpleasant, and exaggerated that it upsets or shocks you. ...the grotesque disparities between the wealthy few and nearly everyone else. ...a country where grotesque abuses are taking place. ADJ • grotesquely He called it the most grotesquely tragic experience that he's ever had. ADV 2. If someone or something is grotesque, they are very ugly. They tried to avoid looking at his grotesque face and his crippled body. = hideous ADJ • grotesquely ...grotesquely deformed beggars. ADV: ADV adj/-ed 3. A grotesque is a person who is very ugly in a strange or unnatural way, especially one in a novel or painting. Grass's novels are peopled with outlandish characters: grotesques, clowns, scarecrows, dwarfs. N-COUNT Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms
Moby ThesaurusGothic, aberrant, abnormal, absurd, anomalous, antic, art object, bandy, bandy-legged, baroque, beyond belief, bizarre, blemished, bloated, bowlegged, brain-born, brainchild, bric-a-brac, cacogenic, classic, club-footed, cockamamie, comic, comical, composition, crazy, creation, curious, defaced, deformed, design, disfigured, distorted, dream-built, droll, dwarfed, eerie, extravagant, extreme, fanciful, fancy-born, fancy-built, fancy-woven, fantasque, fantastic, flamboyant, flatfooted, florid, foolish, freak, freakish, gargoylish, gnarled, gruesome, high-flown, ill-made, ill-proportioned, ill-shaped, incongruous, incredible, kitsch, knock-kneed, laughable, ludicrous, maggoty, malformed, marred, master, masterpiece, masterwork, misbegotten, misproportioned, misshapen, mobile, monstrous, museum piece, mutilated, nonsensical, notional, nude, odd, offbeat, old master, out of shape, outlandish, outrageous, outre, pasticcio, pastiche, peculiar, piece, piece of virtu, pigeon-toed, poppycockish, preposterous, pug-nosed, queer, rachitic, rickety, ridiculous, rococo, shapeless, simous, snub-nosed, stabile, statue, still life, strange, study, stumpy, swaybacked, talipedic, teratic, teratogenic, teratoid, truncated, twisted, uncanny, unshapely, virtu, weird, whimsical, wild, work, work of art |