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Hudibrastic

[ hyoo-duh-bras-tik, or, often, yoo- ]
/ ˌhyu dəˈbræs tɪk, or, often, ˌyu- /
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adjective
of, relating to, or resembling the style of Samuel Butler's Hudibras (published 1663–78), a mock-heroic poem written in tetrameter couplets.
of a playful burlesque style.
noun
a Hudibrastic couplet or stanza.
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Origin of Hudibrastic

1705–15; Hudibras + -tic

OTHER WORDS FROM Hudibrastic

Hu·di·bras·ti·cal·ly, adverb
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use Hudibrastic in a sentence

  • Ordinary narrative poems with no satiric intent were decked in Hudibrastic couplets for the sake of a superficial cleverness.

    Aesop Dress'd|Bernard Mandeville
  • This quotation from the opening of Combe's Hudibrastic narrative will account for the originality of the hero's eccentric title.

  • It is a simple rendering in Hudibrastic verse of a familiar nursery story.

    Charles Lamb|Walter Jerrold
  • His Hudibrastic verses are poor scurrilous trash, as the reader may judge from the description of the Highlanders, already quoted.

British Dictionary definitions for Hudibrastic

hudibrastic
/ (ˌhjuːdɪˈbræstɪk) /

adjective
mock-heroic in style

Word Origin for hudibrastic

C18: after Hudibras, poem (1663–68) by Samuel Butler
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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