Grotesque

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Grotesque \Gro*tesque"\ (gr[-o]*t[e^]sk"), a. [F., fr. It.
     grottesco, fr. grotta grotto. See {Grotto}.]
     1. Like the figures found in ancient grottoes; grottolike.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Hence: Wildly or strangely formed; whimsical; extravagant;


        of irregular forms and proportions; fantastic; ludicrous;
        antic. "Grotesque design." --Dryden. "Grotesque
        incidents." --Macaulay.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Grotesque \Gro*tesque\, n.
     1. A whimsical figure, or scene, such as is found in old
        crypts and grottoes. --Dryden.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Artificial grotto-work.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  grotesque
       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: {monstrous}, {unnatural}]
       2: ludicrously odd; "Hamlet's assumed antic disposition";
          "fantastic Halloween costumes"; "a grotesque reflection in
          the mirror" [syn: {antic}, {fantastic}, {fantastical}]
       n : art characterized by an incongruous mixture of parts of
           humans and animals interwoven with plants

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  125 Moby Thesaurus words for "grotesque":
     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