collage

[kuh-lahzh, koh-]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR collage ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a technique of composing a work of art by pasting on a single surface various materials not normally associated with one another, as newspaper clippings, parts of photographs, theater tickets, and fragments of an envelope.

a work of art produced by this technique.Compare assemblage(def 3).

an assemblage or occurrence of diverse elements or fragments in unlikely or unexpected juxtaposition: The experimental play is a collage of sudden scene shifts, long monologues, musical interludes, and slapstick.

a film that presents a series of seemingly unrelated scenes or images or shifts from one scene or image to another suddenly and without transition.

verb (used with object), col·laged, col·lag·ing.

to make a collage of: The artist has collaged old photos, cartoon figures, and telephone numbers into a unique work of art.

RELATED WORDS

photomontage

Nearby words

Origin of collage

1915–20; < French, equivalent to colle paste, glue (< Greek kólla) + -age -age

Related formscol·lag·ist, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for collage

An Afghan instructor explained the concept of collage in Dari.
How I’ll End the War: Making Collage Art With Afghan Students|Nick Willard|May 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST
“This is my collage about a farm,” he said pointing out a rake, plant, and chicken.
How I’ll End the War: Making Collage Art With Afghan Students|Nick Willard|May 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The risk with collage is that it can seem slapdash or myopic, its meaning opaque to anyone but the artist.
Is Fiction Worthless? David Shields Think So|Jacob Silverman|February 8, 2013|DAILY BEAST
Hartigan based it on a collage of Life magazine snippets that included ads for toothpaste and food shots.
Not-So-Abstract Expressionism|Blake Gopnik|October 29, 2012|DAILY BEAST

Rather, we have a medical marketplace made up of a collage of subsystems, both public and private.
Paul Ryan’s Medicare Misconceptions|Tom Daschle|August 20, 2012|DAILY BEAST
In the whiche Universite is no Collage founded by eny quene of England hidertoward.
Cambridge and its Story|Charles William Stubbs
During the last few years, the Collage has not raised enough of these trees to meet the demand.
Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the|Various
The 143 collage system is also very prevalent in France among the working classes, and seems to answer well enough.
Modern marriage and how to bear it|Maud Churton Braby
Collage, as a technique, anticipates the generalized stage of sampling and compositing.
The Civilization of Illiteracy|Mihai Nadin
The convention of reading is broken; the text is manipulated like an image and offered as a collage to the reader.
The Civilization of Illiteracy|Mihai Nadin

British Dictionary definitions for collage

collage

noun

an art form in which compositions are made out of pieces of paper, cloth, photographs, and other miscellaneous objects, juxtaposed and pasted on a dry ground

a composition made in this way

any work, such as a piece of music, created by combining unrelated styles

Derived Formscollagist, noun

Word Origin for collage

C20: French, from coller to stick, from colle glue, from Greek kolla

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for collage

collage

1919, from French collage "a pasting," from Old French coller "to glue," from Greek kolla "glue." Earliest reference is in Wyndham Lewis.