farce
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
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to season (a speech or composition), especially with witty material.
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Obsolete. to stuff; cram.
noun
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a broadly humorous play based on the exploitation of improbable situations
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the genre of comedy represented by works of this kind
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a ludicrous situation or action
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Also: farcemeat. another name for forcemeat
verb
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to enliven (a speech, etc) with jokes
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to stuff (meat, fowl, etc) with forcemeat
Other Word Forms
- unfarced adjective
Etymology
Origin of farce
First recorded in 1300–50; (for the noun) Middle English fars “stuffing,” from Middle French farce, from Vulgar Latin farsa (unrecorded), noun use of feminine of Latin farsus, earlier fartus “stuffed,” past participle of farcīre “to stuff”; (for the verb) Middle English farsen, from Old French farcir, from Latin farcīre
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Students treat institutional rituals as a farce and openly mock their principal - calling him Yamdoot after the Hindu god of death - a blustering figure who addresses them as "My dear donkey".
From BBC
But it also helps foster the jealousy-driven farce that takes over the current-day narrative and is genuinely funny: a rejiggered timeline in which McCarrol becomes a massive pop star and Johnson gets left behind.
From Los Angeles Times
If you’re reading this review of Gore Verbinski’s maniacal farce “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” in newsprint, congratulations on being a Luddite.
From Los Angeles Times
There’s a world in which AI might even help us push against the always-on connectivity that has made a farce of “work-life balance.”
Although most who semi-soberly engaged with this thought experiment recognized it to be farce — Lord, we hope they did – others treated the fantasy wrestling match seriously.
From Salon
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
