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GROTESQUE
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Art characterized by an incongruous mixture of parts of humans and animals interwoven with plants
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("grotesque" is a kind of...):
art; fine art (the products of human creativity; works of art collectively)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Distorted and unnatural in shape or size; abnormal and hideous
Example:
twisted into monstrous shapes
Synonyms:
grotesque; monstrous
Classified under:
Similar:
ugly (displeasing to the senses)
Derivation:
grotesqueness (ludicrous or incongruous unnaturalness or distortion)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Ludicrously odd
Example:
a grotesque reflection in the mirror
Synonyms:
antic; fantastic; fantastical; grotesque
Classified under:
Similar:
strange; unusual (being definitely out of the ordinary and unexpected; slightly odd or even a bit weird)
Derivation:
grotesqueness (ludicrous or incongruous unnaturalness or distortion)
Context examples:
Here I had heard what he had heard, I had seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and grotesque.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
With a desperation that was madness, unmindful of the pain, he hurried up the slope to the crest of the hill over which his comrade had disappeared—more grotesque and comical by far than that limping, jerking comrade.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
The unbroken stillness of the parlour window leading me to infer, after a while, that she was not there, I lifted up my eyes to the window above it, where I saw a florid, pleasant-looking gentleman, with a grey head, who shut up one eye in a grotesque manner, nodded his head at me several times, shook it at me as often, laughed, and went away.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
I confess that I had not up to now taken a very serious view of the case, which had seemed to me rather grotesque and bizarre than dangerous.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
If you cast your mind back to some of those narratives with which you have afflicted a long-suffering public, you will recognise how often the grotesque has deepened into the criminal.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
But then how could this letter be trivial and grotesque, as described by the son?
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
This investiture of the grotesque and impossible with reality, he looked upon as a trick—a skilful trick at best.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Some of our caricaturists might, he says, take a lesson in the irony of grotesque by comparing the reality and the picture.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
And then, under this high-pitched, ringing sound there was another, more intermittent, a low, deep-chested laugh, a growling, throaty gurgle of merriment which formed a grotesque accompaniment to the shriek with which it was blended.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
When my uncle spoke like this there was always that dancing, mischievous light in his dark blue eyes, which showed me that this humour of his was a conscious eccentricity, depending, as I believe, upon a natural fastidiousness of taste, but wilfully driven to grotesque lengths for the very reason which made him recommend me also to develop some peculiarity of my own.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
