What does GROTESQUE mean?

Definitions for GROTESQUE
groʊˈtɛskgrotesque

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word GROTESQUE.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. grotesqueadjective

    art characterized by an incongruous mixture of parts of humans and animals interwoven with plants

  2. grotesque, monstrousadjective

    distorted and unnatural in shape or size; abnormal and hideous

    "tales of grotesque serpents eight fathoms long that churned the seas"; "twisted into monstrous shapes"

  3. antic, fantastic, fantastical, grotesqueadjective

    ludicrously odd

    "Hamlet's assumed antic disposition"; "fantastic Halloween costumes"; "a grotesque reflection in the mirror"

Wiktionary

  1. grotesquenoun

    A style of ornamentation characterized by fanciful combinations of intertwined forms.

  2. grotesquenoun

    Anything grotesque.

  3. grotesquenoun

    A sans serif typeface.

  4. grotesqueadjective

    distorted and unnatural in shape or size; abnormal and hideous

  5. grotesqueadjective

    disgusting or otherwise viscerally reviling.

  6. grotesqueadjective

    sans serif.

  7. Etymology: grotesque (French: grotesque), from grottesco, from grotta. Compare English grotto.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Grotesqueadjective

    Distorted of figure; unnatural; wildly formed.

    Etymology: grotesque, French; grottesco, Italian.

    The champaign head
    Of a steep wilderness, whose hairy sides
    With thicket overgrown, grotesque and wild,
    Access deny’d. John Milton, Paradise Lost, b. iv.

    There is yet a lower sort of poetry and painting, which is out of nature; for a farce is that in poetry which grotesque is in a picture: the persons and actions of a farce are all unnatural, and the manners false, that is, inconsisting with the characters of mankind: grotesque painting is the just resemblance of this. John Dryden, Dufresnoy.

    An hideous figure of their foes they drew,
    Nor lines, nor looks, nor shades, nor colours true,
    And this grotesque design expos’d to publick view. Dryden.

    Palladian walls, Venetian doors,
    Grotesco roofs, and stucco floors. Alexander Pope, Sat. of Horace.

ChatGPT

  1. grotesque

    Grotesque often refers to a style of decorative art or an object that is characterized by distorted or exaggerated proportions and features, often to the point of being bizarre or eerie. In literature, grotesque may refer to characters or circumstances that are strange, incongruous, or absurdly unusual. This term is generally associated with something that simultaneously arouses empathy and disgust.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Grotesquenoun

    a whimsical figure, or scene, such as is found in old crypts and grottoes

  2. Grotesquenoun

    artificial grotto-work

  3. Etymology: [F., fr. It. grottesco, fr. grotta grotto. See Grotto.]

Wikidata

  1. Grotesque

    The word grotesque comes from the same Latin root as "grotto", which originated from Greek krypte "hidden place", meaning a small cave or hollow. The original meaning was restricted to an extravagant style of Ancient Roman decorative art rediscovered and then copied in Rome at the end of the 15th century. The "caves" were in fact rooms and corridors of the Domus Aurea, the unfinished palace complex started by Nero after the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64, which had become overgrown and buried, until they were broken into again, mostly from above. Spreading from Italian to the other European languages, the term was long used largely interchangeably with arabesque and moresque for types of decorative patterns using curving foliage elements. Since at least the 18th century, grotesque has come to be used as a general adjective for the strange, fantastic, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or disgusting, and thus is often used to describe weird shapes and distorted forms such as Halloween masks. In art, performance, and literature, grotesque, however, may also refer to something that simultaneously invokes in an audience a feeling of uncomfortable bizarreness as well as empathic pity. More specifically, the grotesque forms on Gothic buildings, when not used as drain-spouts, should not be called gargoyles, but rather referred to simply as grotesques, or chimeras.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Grotesque

    grō-tesk′, adj. extravagantly formed: ludicrous.—n. (art) extravagant ornament, containing animals, plants, &c. not really existing.—adv. Grotesque′ly.—ns. Grotesque′ness; Grotesqu′ery. [Fr. grotesque—It. grotescagrotta, a grotto.]

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of GROTESQUE in Chaldean Numerology is: 9

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of GROTESQUE in Pythagorean Numerology is: 1

Examples of GROTESQUE in a Sentence

  1. John White:

    You see a pretty grotesque example of misspending of taxpayer dollars.

  2. Rafi Eitan:

    Rafi Eitan told Fox News Leland Vittert. Eventually, the man admitted he was Adolf Eichmann. With more derring-do, Rafi Eitan and his fellow commandoes spirited Eichmann out of Argentina and brought him back to Israel where he was tried, convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. ANCIENT CLAY JAR FRAGMENT DEPICTING GROTESQUE DEITY DISCOVERED IN JERUSALEMS CITY OF DAVID At a reunion for those involved in Eichmanns capture and trial some years ago, Rafi Eitan recalled Eichmanns capturewith a twinkle in Rafi Eitan eye. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP I was 51 years younger( then), but I am able and ready to do the same thing again.

  3. Stephen Colbert:

    It's predictable why these TV talkers are talking like this on the TV. They want to talk about something other than the January 6th hearings on the actual seditious insurrection that led to the deaths of multiple people, but drawing any equivalence between rioters storming our Capitol to prevent the counting of electoral ballots and a cigar-chomping toy dog is a shameful and grotesque insult to the memory of everyone who died.

  4. Gerald Scarfe:

    I do have a weird vision of the world, ever since I started I was told, 'You're Hieronymus Bosch, your drawings are grotesque.' But of course, they don't seem like that to me.

  5. Zalmay Khalilzad:

    The attack on Amrullah Saleh's political party offices was grotesque and a clear act of terrorism.

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Translations for GROTESQUE

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