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.
1705–15; Hudibras + -tic
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
This saucy boy, who had his "Hudibras" at his tongue's end, carried the satirical spirit with him to church on Sundays, and tried some of the brethren whom he saw there by the Hudibrastic standard.
From Caricature and Other Comic Art in all Times and many Lands. by Parton, James
Whatever the intentions of the poet, it seems to be the property of the Hudibrastic couplet inevitably to denigrate its subject.
From Aesop Dress'd Or a collection of Fables by La Fontaine, Jean de
It has since been translated into many languages, and as Goethe at last thought it worth putting into German hexameters, one may still find it worth reading in English Hudibrastic rhymes.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 89, March, 1865 by Various
There is great Hudibrastic vigour in these lines; and those on the doctors are also very terse.
From Specimens of the Table Talk of Samuel Taylor Coleridge by Coleridge, Henry Nelson
In 1814, George illustrated a Life of Napoleon in Hudibrastic verse, by Dr. Syntax, not our friend Combe, but some anonymous admirer of his hero.
From Old Coloured Books by Paston, George
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.
