Adjacent Words

Grotesque definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

GROTESQUE
GROTESQUELY
GROT'TO, n.
1. A large cave or den; a subterraneous cavern, and primarily a natural cave or rent in the earth, or such as is formed by a current of water, or an earthquake.
2. A cave for coolness and refreshment.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: distorted and unnatural in shape or size; abnormal and hideous; "tales of grotesque serpents eight fathoms long that churned the seas"; "twisted into monstrous shapes" [syn: grotesque, monstrous]
2: ludicrously odd; "Hamlet's assumed antic disposition"; "fantastic Halloween costumes"; "a grotesque reflection in the mirror" [syn: antic, fantastic, fantastical, grotesque] n
1: art characterized by an incongruous mixture of parts of humans and animals interwoven with plants

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle French & Old Italian; Middle French, from Old Italian (pittura) grottesca, literally, cave painting, feminine of grottesco of a cave, from grotta Date: 1561 1. a. a style of decorative art characterized by fanciful or fantastic human and animal forms often interwoven with foliage or similar figures that may distort the natural into absurdity, ugliness, or caricature b. a piece of work in this style 2. one that is grotesque 3. sans serif II. adjective Date: 1603 of, relating to, or having the characteristics of the grotesque: as a. fanciful, bizarre b. absurdly incongruous c. departing markedly from the natural, the expected, or the typical Synonyms: see fantastic • grotesquely adverb • grotesqueness noun

Britannica Concise

In 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 Dictionary

adj. & 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 Dictionary

Grotesque 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

I. a. 1. Fantastic, fanciful, odd, whim-sical, extravagant, unnatural, wild, strange, bizarre. 2. Ludicrous, absurd, antic, burlesque, ridiculous. II. n. 1. Capricious arabesque, whim-sical arabesque. 2. Whimsical, fantastic, odd, extravagant, or bizarre figure.

Moby Thesaurus

Gothic, 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