lampoon
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
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lampoons,
present (3rd person singular)
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lampooned,
past participle, past
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lampooning
present participle
noun
verb
Synonym Usage
See satire.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
lampoonsimple
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lampoonssimple
-
have lampoonedperfect
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has lampoonedperfect
-
am lampooningprogressive
-
are lampooningprogressive
-
is lampooningprogressive
-
have been lampooningperfect progressive
-
has been lampooningperfect progressive
Past
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lampoonedsimple
-
had lampoonedperfect
-
was lampooningprogressive
-
were lampooningprogressive
-
had been lampooningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of lampoon
First recorded in 1635–45; from French lampon, said to be noun use of lampons “let us guzzle” (from a drinking song), imperative of lamper, akin to laper “to lap up,” from Germanic; see lap 3
Explanation
When you make fun of something by imitating it in a humorous way, you're lampooning it. The writers at The Onion, Saturday Night Live, and FunnyOrDie.com are all experts in the art of the lampoon. Lampoon can be both a verb and a noun. To lampoon is ridicule. A lampoon is a parody or satire. Imagine you were frustrated by having your allowance reduced, so you wrote a funny play portraying mom and dad as dictators extracting lots of unfair taxes from their people. That's lampooning. And it probably won't help your allowance situation.
Vocabulary lists containing lampoon
100 SAT Words Beginning with "J," "K," and "L"
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Vocabulary Video Contest (2013) - List 1
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Comedy Lingo
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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.
See Examples For:
There is no gimmick to “get,” other than the film’s loving lampoon of the TV movie.
From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2026
“The Moment” doesn’t quite lampoon Swift’s massively successful tour or its ensuing media, but it does take issue with the Eras Tour’s tame spectacle.
From Salon ● Feb. 8, 2026
Beeple, who is 44, spoke with The Wall Street Journal on Friday about his latest lampoon as he stood in the pen with his pack at the fair, which runs through Sunday.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 5, 2025
Chenoweth, who is as gleaming as a holiday ornament on Liberace’s Christmas tree, arrives at a canny balance of quixotic generosity and parvenu carelessness in her portrayal of a woman she refuses to lampoon.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 9, 2025
In 1889, the enormous popularity in Britain of Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah caused George Bernard Shaw to lampoon its Sunday-school sentimentalities and its Music-school ornamentalities’.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
Where “The Pitt” inspires awe at what these doctors achieve with a paucity of resources, time and patience, “Scrubs” lampoons the absurdity of a corporatized medical system steadily grinding down doctor and patient alike.
From Salon ● Feb. 26, 2026
Trey Parker and Matt Stone's long-running animated sitcom regularly lampoons leading figures including US President Trump.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2025
Created by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, this Apple TV+ comedy celebrates the movies even as it lampoons the circumstances of their creation to great comedic effect.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 2, 2025
Attorneys contend Metro has accepted ads promoting term limits for the Supreme Court, as well as ones promoting “The Book of Mormon” musical, a play that lampoons The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 12, 2023
This contemporary lithograph lampoons the panicked gentry who fled the city - and thus turned Handel’s new oratorio, Theodora, into a box-office flop.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
Mr. Morton has done this kind of thing before and done it with Mr. Bonneville—“Twenty Twelve” lampooned the scene behind the 2012 London Olympics; “W1A” burlesqued the BBC.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026
Anyone lampooned with a scintilla of brutality knows that an appearance can temporarily inoculate against accusations of humorlessness.
From Salon ● Mar. 6, 2026
Eight years ago, Jonny Bairstow was lampooned in the Australian media for a 'headbutt' to home opener Cameron Bancroft in a Perth bar.
From BBC ● Jan. 8, 2026
Exact Sciences, which went public in 2001, sells genetic tests, a liver cancer screening test called Oncoguard, and Cologuard, which was memorably lampooned External link by Saturday Night Live in 2023.
From Barron's ● Nov. 20, 2025
In his comic play The Clouds, Aristophanes, writing in 420 bc, lampooned rhetoric as the art of weak reasoning, “which by false arguments triumphs over the strong.”
From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith
Eastside Girls, meanwhile, is a tender depiction of Muna's neighbourhood, lovingly lampooning the staples of LA hipster culture – astrology, polyamory, roommate dramas and "negronis with the nice gin".
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
The people at HBO are very concerned about leaks regarding who plays whom among the fabulous guest stars populating “Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness,” Larry David’s seven-episode sketch-comedy series lampooning U.S. history.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
Still, it’s true that when the series was at its nadir, so few vibrant horror films were being made that it was stuck lampooning the now-forgotten Jessica Chastain chiller “Mama.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2026
Getting horizontal in a relentlessly vertical city was a simple gesture that punctured most of the collective delusions that made that city run, at once lampooning and rejecting the pose of an upright citizen.
From New York Times ● Dec. 27, 2023
He played the game like a child, or like someone who was bent on lampooning a sacred ritual, which amounted to the same thing.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
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.
