grotesque

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   Distorted and unnatural in shape or size

   Distorted and unnatural in shape or size; abnormal, especially in a hideous way.

   • The chimney-piece was of party-coloured marble, covered with figures, some of whose faces were beautiful, but generally running off into those grotesque combinations which characterised the peculiar taste of their time.
2. 2

   Disgusting or otherwise viscerally revolting.

   • Trump’s grotesque and incomprehensible fondness for Putin makes the details of any deal highly dangerous for Europe and the NATO alliance, founded to confront Russia.
3. 3

   Sans serif.

4. ›+ 4 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

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

   2. 5

      Anything grotesque.

      • Obese and largely unintelligible, Don Vito represents a working-class white male grotesque, the picture of excess.
      • He’s also the new character from Sacha Baron Cohen, the man behind Ali G, Borat and Brüno: that unholy trinity of comic grotesques that told us a lot more about ourselves than we’d like to admit.
   3. 6

      A sans serif typeface.

   4. 7

      To make grotesque.

      • This is to grotesque Dante, not to translate him.
      • At this point, species is seen antagonistically by the subject as something intent on restricting its freedom and grotesqueing its vitality.

The neighborhood