Chekhovian

American  

[che-koh-vee-uhn, -kaw-fee-, -kof-ee-, chek-aw-fee-uhn, -of-ee-] / tʃɛˈkoʊ vi ən, -ˈkɔ fi-, -ˈkɒf i-, ˈtʃɛk ɔ fi ən, -ɒf i- /

adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of Anton Chekhov or his writings, especially as they are evocative of a mood of introspection and frustration.

---

Etymology

Origin of Chekhovian

First recorded in 1920–25; Chekhov + -ian

Example Sentences

They are in conversation with an interviewer and should not be treated as though they are Chekhovian characters lost in their own inner lives.

From Los Angeles Times

What ensues is a slow-motion wreck that the audience can see coming down Madison Avenue, complete with a Chekhovian trope that’s as on the nose as it is breathtakingly offensive.

From Washington Post

“This is what I want to tell you about: what it is to come from a place like Sacramento. If I could make you understand that, I could make you understand California … for Sacramento is California, and California is a place in which a boom mentality and a sense of Chekhovian loss meet in uneasy suspension.”

From Washington Post

His most recent picture, “The Novelist’s Film,” is no exception, a Chekhovian study in small moments and chance encounters, which is to say it is a study of human beings as they really live: ambiguously and without exposition, spontaneously and without tidy motives or resolution.

From New York Times

“If I could make you understand that, I could make you understand California. …. for Sacramento is California, and California is a place in which a boom mentality and a sense of Chekhovian loss meet in uneasy suspension.”

From New York Times