grotesque
[groh-tesk]
- odd or unnatural in shape, appearance, or character; fantastically ugly or absurd; bizarre.
- fantastic in the shaping and combination of forms, as in decorative work combining incongruous human and animal figures with scrolls, foliage, etc.
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- any grotesque object, design, person, or thing.
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Origin of grotesque
Synonyms
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comDictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
whimsicalfantasticmonstrousridiculouseerieludicrousstrangepreposterousoutlandishfancifulabsurdbizarreoddsurrealisticgrossflamboyantanticqueerweirdaberrantExamples from the Web for grotesque
Contemporary Examples
Grotesque profiteering aside, life release ceremonies can devastate the eco-system.
Why is the sight—or mere thought—of other adults having sex thought of as grotesque, bad, or forbidden in the year 2014?
Porn Stars Are People Too, Dammit: Lisa Ann’s Notre Dame Date and the Trolling of David GregoryAurora Snow
October 25, 2014
Except in cases with the highest body count, or the most grotesque cruelty, white victims were the only ones that mattered.
At least Jake Gyllenhaal shaved off his grotesque face scarf this year.
The runoff has turned into a macabre political sideshow filled with grotesque attacks and ugly accusations.
Historical Examples
The outrage on the Warden was not so grotesque, but the effect was the same.
The UnderdogF. Hopkinson Smith
It has a pompous Latin name, but it is incurably Gothic and grotesque.
Alarms and DiscursionsG. K. Chesterton
But this grotesque sentiment did not pass current even in the smoking-room.
In a Steamer Chair and Other StoriesRobert Barr
Who and what were the persons of whom the preacher gave this grotesque account?
A Writer's Recollections (In Two Volumes), Volume IMrs. Humphry Ward
And all waited on what the grotesque, bloated figure they watched might reveal.
The Bluff of the HawkAnthony Gilmore
grotesque
- strangely or fantastically distorted; bizarrea grotesque reflection in the mirror
- of or characteristic of the grotesque in art
- absurdly incongruous; in a ludicrous contexta grotesque turn of phrase
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- a 16th-century decorative style in which parts of human, animal, and plant forms are distorted and mixed
- a decorative device, as in painting or sculpture, in this style
- printing the family of 19th-century sans serif display types
- any grotesque person or thing
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Word Origin
C16: from French, from Old Italian (pittura) grottesca cave painting, from grottesco of a cave, from grotta cave; see grotto
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for grotesque
adj.
c.1600s, originally a noun (1560s), from Middle French crotesque (16c., Modern French grotesque), from Italian grottesco, literally "of a cave," from grotta (see grotto). The usual explanation is that the word first was used of paintings found on the walls of basements of Roman ruins (Italian pittura grottesca), which OED finds "intrinsically plausible." Originally "fanciful, fantastic," sense became pejorative after mid-18c. Related: Grotesquely; grotesqueness.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper