grotesque
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.
any grotesque object, design, person, or thing.
Origin of grotesque
1synonym study For grotesque
Other words for grotesque
Other words from grotesque
- gro·tesque·ly, adverb
- gro·tesque·ness, noun
- un·gro·tesque, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use grotesque in a sentence
Such as a scene where a corpse is being disposed of in a grotesque manner while the car radio in the background blasts Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You.”
Jo Nesbo’s ‘The Kingdom’ is a suspenseful bundle of Norwegian noir that’s almost impossible to put down | Richard Lipez | November 9, 2020 | Washington PostAnd did you not also, in between shivers, admire how grotesquely pretty the shot was?
‘Penny Dreadful’ Is a Shameless Orgy of Blood, Gore, and Scary Fun | Kevin Fallon | May 12, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTSo, this is clearly freakazoid behavior, and is obviously a grotesquely inappropriate thing for a medical professional to do.
In the past, Hamad has suffered some health problems, in part because he has diabetes and used to be grotesquely obese.
A small, if nonsensical, price to pay for America to stop being so grotesquely fat.
Julia Tymoshenko languishes in a prison hospital, her privacy grotesquely invaded (almost every move she makes is videotaped).
Is Julia Tymoshenko Europe’s Aung San Suu Kyi? | Geoffrey Robertson | October 23, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTAnselme, thus enjoined, lent an unwonted alacrity to his movements, waddling grotesquely like a hastening waterfowl.
St. Martin's Summer | Rafael SabatiniA horse or a tree or a clump of brush loomed up grotesquely in the vaporous blur.
Raw Gold | Bertrand W. SinclairThe third was a mournful-eyed Schree, clad in an ornamented smock-like garment, from which his thin limbs thrust grotesquely.
Valley of the Croen | Lee TarbellHe rose, shaking himself together, and his glance fell on the three suspended socks bulging grotesquely.
The Woman Gives | Owen JohnsonNowhere perhaps has the great water erosion of bygone aeons wrought more grotesquely and fantastically than in the Moqui basin.
Overland | John William De Forest
British Dictionary definitions for grotesque
/ (ɡrəʊˈtɛsk) /
strangely or fantastically distorted; bizarre: a grotesque reflection in the mirror
of or characteristic of the grotesque in art
absurdly incongruous; in a ludicrous context: a grotesque turn of phrase
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
Origin of grotesque
1Derived forms of grotesque
- grotesquely, adverb
- grotesqueness, noun
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
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