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  • Hudibrastic
    Hudibrastic
    adjective
    of, relating to, or resembling the style of Samuel Butler's Hudibras (published 1663–78), a mock-heroic poem written in tetrameter couplets.
  • hudibrastic
    hudibrastic
    adjective
    mock-heroic in style

Hudibrastic

American  
[hyoo-duh-bras-tik, yoo-] / ˌhyu dəˈbræs tɪk, ˌyu- /

adjective

  1. of, relating to, or resembling the style of Samuel Butler's Hudibras (published 1663–78), a mock-heroic poem written in tetrameter couplets.

  2. of a playful burlesque style.


noun

  1. a Hudibrastic couplet or stanza.

hudibrastic British  
/ ˌhjuːdɪˈbræstɪk /

adjective

  1. mock-heroic in style

"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

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Etymology

Origin of Hudibrastic

1705–15; Hudibras + -tic

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Edward Ward, a very voluminous poet in Hudibrastic verse, but best known by the London Spy, in prose.

From The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Volume 2 by Gilfillan, George

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

The total number of Hudibrastic couplets in Aesop Dress'd comes to only a handful: They'll give you a hundred Niceties, As Chicken Bones, boyl'd Loins of Mutton, As good as ever Tooth was put in....

From Aesop Dress'd Or a collection of Fables by La Fontaine, Jean de

The catholic Ward, in his singular Hudibrastic poem of "England's Reformation," in some odd rhymes, has characterised it by a naïveté, which we are much too delicate to repeat.

From Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 2 by Disraeli, Isaac

With its jog-trot meter, insinuating swiftness, and jarring double and triple rhymes, the Hudibrastic couplet was ideally suited to the mockery performed by low burlesque.

From Aesop Dress'd Or a collection of Fables by La Fontaine, Jean de

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