buffoonery
Americannoun
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amusement by means of usually physical or visual tricks, jokes, etc..
The play swings from absurd buffoonery to high tragedy, with kinetic physicality, silliness, swords, and live music.
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coarse or undignified joking.
The managers perceived my buffoonery as a barely concealed way of calling them pretentious—and they weren’t altogether wrong.
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silly, foolish, or unseemly behavior.
It’s hard to top the current governor's race if you like your politics laced with outrageous buffoonery.
Etymology
Origin of buffoonery
Explanation
If someone tells you to cut out the buffoonery, you may want to consider taking the French fries out of your nostrils. Buffoonery means acting like a clown. Notice how buffoon sounds like puff? Well, they're related. Buffare is an Italian word meaning "puff out the cheeks," which is apparently something that Italian court jesters, or buffoons, liked to do in the 1700s. Guess you had to be there.
Vocabulary lists containing buffoonery
We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball
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Vocabulary Video Contest (2013) - List 2
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Stories of Ourselves
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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.
Buffoonery to Mediocrity Marvelous Marv departed early in 1963, but the Mets' maladies lingered.
From Time Magazine Archive
Buffoonery is wholesomer, because it is a little more kindly.
From Amiel's Journal by Ward, Humphry, Mrs.
Buffoonery she possibly, even probably, could learn to hate.
From The Folly Of Eustace 1896 by Hichens, Robert Smythe
Buffoonery of the vilest description enhanced the finest strokes of burlesque sarcasm.
From The Memoirs of Count Carlo Gozzi; Volume the First by Gozzi, Carlo
Buffoonery differs from lampoon in being carried on in acting, instead of words.
From History of English Humour, Vol. 2 by L'Estrange, Alfred Guy Kingan
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.
