Adjacent Words

Travesty definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

TRAV'ESTY, a. [infra.] Having an unusual dress; disguised by dress so as to be ridiculous. It is applied to a book or composition translated in a manner to make it burlesque.
TRAV'ESTY, n. A parody; a burlesque translation of a work. Travesty may be intended to ridicule absurdity, or to convert a grave performance into a humorous one.
TRAV'ESTY, v.t. To translate into such language as to render ridiculous or ludicrous.
G. Battista Lalli travestied Virgil, or turned him into Italian burlesque verse.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a comedy characterized by broad satire and improbable situations [syn: farce, farce comedy, travesty]
2: a composition that imitates or misrepresents somebody's style, usually in a humorous way [syn: parody, lampoon, spoof, sendup, mockery, takeoff, burlesque, travesty, charade, pasquinade, put-on] v
1: make a travesty of

Merriam Webster's

I. transitive verb (-tied; -tying) Date: 1673 to make a travesty of ; parody II. noun (plural -ties) Etymology: obsolete English travesty disguised, parodied, from French travesti, past participle of travestir to disguise, from Italian travestire, from tra- across (from Latin trans-) + vestire to dress, from Latin — more at vest Date: 1674 1. a burlesque translation or literary or artistic imitation usually grotesquely incongruous in style, treatment, or subject matter 2. a debased, distorted, or grossly inferior imitation <a travesty of justice> Synonyms: see caricature

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. (pl. -ies) a grotesque misrepresentation or imitation (a travesty of justice). --v.tr. (-ies, -ied) make or be a travesty of. Etymology: (orig. adj.) f. F travesti past part. of travestir disguise, change the clothes of, f. It. travestire (as TRANS-, vestire clothe)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Travesty Trav"es*ty, a. [F. travesti, p. p. of travestir to disguise, to travesty, It. travestire, fr. L. trans across, over + vestire to dress, clothe. See Vest.] Disguised by dress so as to be ridiculous; travestied; -- applied to a book or shorter composition. [R.]

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Travesty Trav"es*ty, n.; pl. Travesties. A burlesque translation or imitation of a work. The second edition is not a recast, but absolutely a travesty of the first. --De Quincey.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Travesty Trav"es*ty, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Travestied; p. pr. & vb. n. Travesting.] To translate, imitate, or represent, so as to render ridiculous or ludicrous. I see poor Lucan travestied, not appareled in his Roman toga, but under the cruel shears of an English tailor. --Bentley.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(travesties) If you describe something as a travesty of another thing, you mean that it is a very bad representation of that other thing. Her research suggests that Smith's reputation today is a travesty of what he really stood for... N-COUNT: oft N of n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. v. a. Parody, imitate, take off, turn into burlesque. II. n. Parody, burlesque, caricature.

Moby Thesaurus

Atticism, aggrandize, aggrandizement, agile wit, amplification, amplify, anamorphosis, ape, bad likeness, ballyhoo, belie, big talk, black humor, blowing up, botch, build up, burlesque, camouflage, caricature, carry too far, color, comedy, copy, daub, dilatation, dilation, disguise, distort, distortion, draw the longbow, dry wit, dummy, duplication, enhancement, enlargement, esprit, exaggerate, exaggerating, exaggeration, excess, exorbitance, expansion, extravagance, extreme, facsimile, falsify, farce, garble, go to extremes, grandiloquence, heightening, hit off on, huckstering, humor, hyperbole, hyperbolism, hyperbolize, imitate, imitation, inflation, inordinacy, irony, knockoff, lampoon, lay it on, magnification, magnify, make much of, mimicry, miscolor, misquote, misreport, misrepresent, misstate, misteach, mock, mock-up, mockery, model, nimble wit, overcharge, overdo, overdraw, overemphasis, overestimate, overestimation, overkill, overpraise, overreach, overreact, oversell, overspeak, overstate, overstatement, overstress, paraphrase, parody, pastiche, pervert, pile it on, pleasantry, pretty wit, prodigality, profuseness, puff, puffery, puffing up, quick wit, ready wit, replica, representation, reproduction, ridicule, salt, sarcasm, satire, satirize, savor of wit, scratch, scribble, sensationalism, sham, slant, slapstick, slapstick humor, squib, stretch, stretch the truth, stretching, subtle wit, superlative, take off, take off on, takeoff, talk big, talk in superlatives, tall talk, tout, touting, twist, understate, version, visual humor, warp, wicked imitation, wit, wrench