baroque

[buh-rohk, ba-rawk]

adjective

1. (often initial capital letter),  of or relating to a style of architecture and art originating in Italy in the early 17th century and variously prevalent in Europe and the New World for a century and a half, characterized by free and sculptural use of the classical orders and ornament, by forms in elevation and plan suggesting movement, and by dramatic effect in which architecture, painting, sculpture, and the decorative arts often worked to combined effect.

2. (sometimes initial capital letter),  of or relating to the musical period following the Renaissance, extending roughly from 1600 to 1750.

3. extravagantly ornate, florid, and convoluted in character or style.

   the baroque prose of the novel's more lurid passages.

4. irregular in shape.

   baroque pearls.

noun

1. (often initial capital letter),  the baroque style or period.

2. anything extravagantly ornamented, especially something so ornate as to be in bad taste.

3. an irregularly shaped pearl.

baroque

/ bəˈrəʊk, bəˈrɒk /

noun

1. a style of architecture and decorative art that flourished throughout Europe from the late 16th to the early 18th century, characterized by extensive ornamentation

2. a 17th-century style of music characterized by extensive use of the thorough bass and of ornamentation

3. any ornate or heavily ornamented style

adjective

1. denoting, being in, or relating to the baroque

2. (of pearls) irregularly shaped

baroque

1. A period in the arts, visual and musical, from about 1600 to about 1750, marked by elaborate ornamentation and efforts to create dramatic effects. Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frederick Handel, and Antonio Vivaldi were great composers of the baroque era.

Word History and Origins

Origin of baroque¹

1755–65; < French < Portuguese barroco, barroca irregularly shaped pearl (of obscure origin; compare Spanish berrueco, barrueco granitic crag, irregular pearl, spherical nodule), probably conflated with Medieval Latin baroco invented word for a kind of obfuscating syllogism

Word History and Origins

Origin of baroque¹

C18: from French, from Portuguese barroco a rough or imperfectly shaped pearl

Example Sentences

The morning after his dinner with Wing Chau, Eisman woke up to his first glimpse of the bond market in the flesh, and a lot of sensationally phony baroque ceiling frescoes.

Read more on Literature

Lately, however, there are signs that the story has entered its baroque phase, as firms have to reach further and further to meet heightened expectations, and some new efforts begin to feel overwrought.

Read more on Barron's

This dip takes its inspiration from a more baroque, arguably campy, ancestor: the seven-layer.

Read more on Salon

It was an opera house, and it was really there, with its baroque moldings and balconies sprawling out atop the Empire Polo Club stage at this year’s Coachella festival.

Read more on Salon

Continuing apace, voters in November elected a political newcomer and relative moderate, Daniel Lurie, as mayor and punctuated the sentiment by gifting him a more simpatico Board of Supervisors at San Francisco’s baroque City Hall.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• florid 
• ornate 
• rococo