burlesque
Americannoun
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an artistic composition, especially literary or dramatic, that, for the sake of laughter, vulgarizes lofty material or treats ordinary material with mock dignity.
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any ludicrous parody or grotesque caricature.
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Also burlesk a humorous and provocative stage show featuring slapstick humor, comic skits, bawdy songs, striptease acts, and a scantily clad female chorus.
adjective
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involving ludicrous or mocking treatment of a solemn subject.
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of, relating to, or like stage-show burlesque.
verb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
noun
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an artistic work, esp literary or dramatic, satirizing a subject by caricaturing it
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a ludicrous imitation or caricature
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a play of the 17th–19th centuries that parodied some contemporary dramatic fashion or event
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Also: burlesk. Slang name: burleycue. theatre a bawdy comedy show of the late 19th and early 20th centuries: the striptease eventually became one of its chief elements
adjective
verb
Synonym Usage
Burlesque, caricature, parody, travesty refer to the literary or dramatic forms that imitate serious works or subjects to achieve a humorous or satiric purpose. The characteristic device of burlesque is mockery of both high and low through association with their opposites: a burlesque of high and low life. Caricature, usually associated with visual arts or with visual effects in literary works, implies exaggeration of characteristic details: The caricature emphasized his nose. Parody achieves its humor through application of the manner or technique, usually of a well-known writer, to unaccustomed subjects: a parody by Swift. Travesty implies a grotesque form of burlesque: characters so changed as to produce a travesty.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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burlesquesimple
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burlesquessimple
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have burlesquedperfect
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has burlesquedperfect
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am burlesquingprogressive
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are burlesquingprogressive
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is burlesquingprogressive
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have been burlesquingperfect progressive
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has been burlesquingperfect progressive
Past
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burlesquedsimple
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had burlesquedperfect
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was burlesquingprogressive
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were burlesquingprogressive
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had been burlesquingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of burlesque
1650–60; < French < Italian burlesco, equivalent to burl ( a ) jest (perhaps < Spanish; cf. burladero) + -esco -esque
Explanation
In contemporary usage, burlesque is a playfully nostalgic form of striptease — think fans and feather boas rather than explicit nudity — but this is just the latest form of an ironic style of entertainment dating back to medieval times. Burlesque comes from burla, Spanish for "joke." Comedy has always been an essential part of burlesque art, but it's comedy of a particular kind. Burlesque is satirical, and it uses exaggeration that can be extreme. Early examples of burlesque in English literature can be found in the Canterbury Tales. By the eighteenth century, the word was used to describe often risqué parodies of serious operas or plays. Burlesque became associated with striptease in the music halls and vaudeville theaters of nineteenth-century America.
Vocabulary lists containing burlesque
The Catcher in the Rye
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Flying Lessons & Other Stories
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How the García Girls Lost Their Accents
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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.
See Examples For:
Other snaps showed fake 100 dollar bills spread across the floor, her posing with burlesque star Dita Von Teese, and dancing with an Elvis impersonator.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
I really don’t know, but I feel like burlesque has evolved and that’s what this place is.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2026
The Pussycat Dolls were founded by Antin in 1995 as an all-female burlesque dance troupe.
From BBC ● Mar. 12, 2026
At last, the narrative style breaks out of burlesque into something worthy of a celebrated contemporary author.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 7, 2025
Erasmus’s burlesque attack is a mark of Cicero’s enduring influence.
From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith
These unconscious burlesques beat the premeditated article every time.
From Slate ● Dec. 31, 2019
What was once liberating now feels limiting, reducing our notions of power to hysterically pitched burlesques or tough-as-males drag.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 15, 2018
“Ms. Pak-Man” is stuffed with burlesques of ’70s and ’80s music and video-game culture.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 9, 2017
At 56, after nearly 40 years of musical burlesques, the accordion-grinding pop satirist has scored his first top-of-the-pops CD with the album Mandatory Fun.
From Time ● Aug. 1, 2014
I told you about the theatre the 14th Brooklyn has got up—they have songs and burlesques, etc.; some of the performers real good.
From The Wound Dresser A Series of Letters Written from the Hospitals in Washington during the War of the Rebellion by Whitman, Walt
Mr. Morton has done this kind of thing before and done it with Mr. Bonneville—“Twenty Twelve” lampooned the scene behind the 2012 London Olympics; “W1A” burlesqued the BBC.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026
Basquiat plainly harbored that emotion even as, for art’s sake, he burlesqued it, packing spaces around and amid the vehement black lines with abstract fiestas of white, red, blue, and yellow.
From The New Yorker ● May 26, 2017
She has become the archetype of the cinema woman, adulated, burlesqued, imitated, envied.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 29, 2012
On the contrary: She sang very well, in a style that burlesqued the practice of "normal" singing.
From Slate ● Dec. 1, 2009
He burlesqued his own religion as the most earnest constantly do, for we all revolve around ourselves as well as our suns.
From The Cup of Fury A Novel of Cities and Shipyards by Raleigh, Henry
In the course of sassing its forebears by burlesquing their excesses and teasing out their subtexts, the show hoots at the clichés of pop fiction and real life even as it indulges them.
From The New Yorker ● Aug. 10, 2018
The Coen brothers take aim at Cold War-era Hollywood, burlesquing its scandals, blacklist and ancient world spectaculars.
From New York Times ● Jul. 28, 2016
"Miracle!" would've looked more outrageous in the 1990s, when Savage's Greek Active troupe was burlesquing the classics.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 19, 2012
The ingredients were familiar: Morgan burlesquing high-flown documentaries; Morgan being badgered by bustling stooges.
From Time Magazine Archive
In Newbery’s collection of “Melodies” there were numerous footnotes burlesquing Dr. Johnson and his dictionary, together with jests upon the moralizing habit prevalent among authors.
From Forgotten Books of the American Nursery A History of the Development of the American Story-Book by Halsey, Rosalie Vrylina
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.
