grotesque

• POS: Adjective, Noun
• HYPHEN: gro=tesque

CIDE DICTIONARY

grotesque, a. [F., fr. It. grottesco, fr. grotta grotto. See Grotto.].

•  Like the figures found in ancient grottoes; grottolike.  [1913 Webster]
•  Wildly or strangely formed; whimsical; extravagant; of irregular forms and proportions; fantastic; ludicrous; antic.  [1913 Webster]

grotesque, n. 

•  A whimsical figure, or scene, such as is found in old crypts and grottoes.  Dryden.  [1913 Webster]
•  Artificial grotto-work.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

grotesque, adj. & n.
--adj.
1 comically or repulsively distorted; monstrous, unnatural.
2 incongruous, ludicrous, absurd.
--n.
1 a decorative form interweaving human and animal features.
2 a comically distorted figure or design.
3 Printing a family of sanserif typefaces.

Derivative

grotesquely adv. grotesqueness n. grotesquerie n.

Etymology

earlier crotesque f. F crotesque f. It. grottesca grotto-like (painting etc.) fem. of grottesco (as GROTTO, -ESQUE)

THESAURUS

grotesque

Gothic, aberrant, abnormal, absurd, anomalous, antic, art object, bandy, bandy-legged, baroque, beyond belief, bizarre, blemished, bloated, bowlegged, brain-born, brainchild, bric-a-brac, cacogenic, classic, club-footed, cockamamie, comic, comical, composition, crazy, creation, curious, defaced, deformed, design, disfigured, distorted, dream-built, droll, dwarfed, eerie, extravagant, extreme, fanciful, fancy-born, fancy-built, fancy-woven, fantasque, fantastic, flamboyant, flatfooted, florid, foolish, freak, freakish, gargoylish, gnarled, gruesome, high-flown, ill-made, ill-proportioned, ill-shaped, incongruous, incredible, kitsch, knock-kneed, laughable, ludicrous, maggoty, malformed, marred, master, masterpiece, masterwork, misbegotten, misproportioned, misshapen, mobile, monstrous, museum piece, mutilated, nonsensical, notional, nude, odd, offbeat, old master, out of shape, outlandish, outrageous, outre, pasticcio, pastiche, peculiar, piece, piece of virtu, pigeon-toed, poppycockish, preposterous, pug-nosed, queer, rachitic, rickety, ridiculous, rococo, shapeless, simous, snub-nosed, stabile, statue, still life, strange, study, stumpy, swaybacked, talipedic, teratic, teratogenic, teratoid, truncated, twisted, uncanny, unshapely, virtu, weird, whimsical, wild, work, work of art

ROGET THESAURUS

grotesque

Inelegance

N inelegance, stiffness, unlettered Muse, barbarism, slang, solecism, mannerism, euphuism, fustian, cacophony, words that break the teeth, words that dislocate the jaw, marinism, inelegant, graceless, ungraceful, harsh, abrupt, dry, stiff, cramped, formal, guinde, forced, labored, artificial, mannered, ponderous, awkward, uncourtly, unpolished, turgid, affected, euphuistic, barbarous, uncouth, grotesque, rude, crude, halting, offensive to ears polite, Spoken Language.

Unconformity

N unconformity, nonconformity, unconformity, disconformity, unconventionality, informality, abnormity, abnormality, anomaly, anomalousness, exception, peculiarity, infraction of law, breach, of law, violation of law, violation of custom, violation of usage, infringement of law, infringement of custom, infringement of usage, teratism, eccentricity, bizarrerie, oddity, je ne sais quoi, monster, monstrosity, rarity, freak, freak of Nature, weirdo, mutant, rouser, snorter, individuality, idiosyncrasy, originality, mannerism, aberration, irregularity, variety, singularity, exemption, salvo, nonconformist, nondescript, character, original, nonesuch, nonsuch, monster, prodigy, wonder, miracle, curiosity, flying fish, black sheep, black swan, lusus naturae, rara avis, queer fish, mongrel, random breed, half-caste, half-blood, half-breed, metis, crossbreed, hybrid, mule, hinny, mulatto, tertium quid, hermaphrodite, phoenix, chimera, hydra, sphinx, minotaur, griffin, griffon, centaur, saggittary, kraken, cockatrice, wyvern, roc, dragon, sea serpent, mermaid, merman, merfolk, unicorn, Cyclops, men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders, teratology, fish out of water, neither one thing nor another, neither fish nor fowl, neither fish flesh nor fowl nor good red herring, one in a million, one in a way, one in a thousand, outcast, outlaw, off the beaten track, oasis, uncomformable, exceptional, abnormal, abnormous, anomalous, anomalistic, out of order, out of place, out of keeping, out of tune, out of one's element, irregular, arbitrary, teratogenic, lawless, informal, aberrant, stray, wandering, wanton, peculiar, exclusive, unnatural, eccentric, egregious, out of the beaten track, off the beaten track, out of the common, out of the common run, beyond the pale of, out of the pale of, misplaced, funny, unusual, unaccustomed, uncustomary, unwonted, uncommon, rare, curious, odd, extraordinary, out of the ordinary, strange, monstrous, wonderful, unexpected, unaccountable, outre, out of the way, remarkable, noteworthy, queer, quaint, nondescript, none such, sui generis, unfashionable, fantastic, grotesque, bizarre, outlandish, exotic, tombe des nues, preternatural, denaturalized, heterogeneous, heteroclite, amorphous, mongrel, amphibious, epicene, half blood, hybrid, androgynous, androgynal, asymmetric, adelomorphous, bisexual, hermaphrodite, monoclinous, qualified, singular, unique, one-of-a-kind, newfangled, novel, non-classical, original, unconventional, unheard of, unfamiliar, undescribed, unprecedented, unparalleled, unexampled, unconformably, except, unless, save barring, beside, without, save and except, let alone, however, yet, but, once in a blue moon, once in a million years, Int, what on earth!, what in the world!, What the devil!, Holy cow!, Can you top that?, Sacre bleu, never was seen the like, never was heard the like, never was known the like, I could hardly believe it, I saw it, but I didn't believe it.

Ugliness

N ugliness, deformity, inelegance, acomia, disfigurement, want of symmetry, inconcinnity, distortion, squalor, forbidding countenance, vinegar aspect, hanging look, wry face, spretae injuria formae, eyesore, object, witch, hag, figure, sight, fright, monster, dog, woofer, pig, octopus, specter, scarecrow, harridan, satyr, toad, monkey, baboon, Caliban, Aesop, monstrum horrendum informe ingens cui lumen adempt, ugly, ugly as sin, ugly as a toad, ugly as a scarecrow, ugly as a dead monkey, plain, bald (unadorned), homely, ordinary, unornamental, inartistic, unsightly, unseemly, uncomely, unlovely, unshapely, sightless, seemless, not fit to be seen, unbeauteous, unbeautiful, beautiless, semibeautiful, shapeless, misshapen, misproportioned, monstrous, gaunt, dumpy, curtailed of its fair proportions, ill-made, ill- shaped, ill-proportioned, crooked, hard featured, hard visaged, ill-favored, hard-favored, evil-favored, ill-looking, unprepossessing, unattractive, uninviting, unpleasing, graceless, inelegant, ungraceful, ungainly, uncouth, stiff, rugged, rough, gross, rude, awkward, clumsy, slouching, rickety, gawky, lumping, lumpish, lumbering, hulky, hulking, unwieldy, squalid, haggard, grim, grim faced, grim visaged, grisly, ghastly, ghost like, death like, cadaverous, grewsome, gruesome, frightful, hideous, odious, uncanny, forbidding, repellant, repulsive, repugnant, grotesque, bizarre, grody, grody to the max, horrid, horrible, shocking, foul, dingy, gaudy, disfigured, discolored.

Ridiculousness

N ridiculousness, comicality, oddity, extravagance, drollery, farce, comedy, burlesque, buffoonery, frippery, doggerel verses, absurdity, bombast, anticlimax, bathos, eccentricity, monstrosity, laughingstock, ridiculous, ludicrous, comical, droll, funny, laughable, pour rire, grotesque, farcical, odd, whimsical, whimsical as a dancing bear, fanciful, fantastic, queer, rum, quizzical, quaint, bizarre, screaming, eccentric, strange, outlandish, out of the way, baroque, weird, awkward, extravagant, outre, monstrous, preposterous, bombastic, inflated, stilted, burlesque, mock heroic, drollish, seriocomic, tragicomic, gimcrack, contemptible, doggerel, ironical, risible, risum teneatis amici, rideret Heraclitus, du sublime au ridicule il n'y a qu'un pas.

Distortion

N distortion, detortion, contortion, twist, crookedness, grimace, deformity, malformation, malconformation, harelip, monstrosity, misproportion, want of symmetry, anamorphosis, ugliness, talipes, teratology, asymmetry, irregularity, distorted, out of shape, irregular, asymmetric, unsymmetric, awry, wry, askew, crooked, not true, not straight, on one side, crump, deformed, harelipped, misshapen, misbegotten, misproportioned, ill proportioned, ill-made, grotesque, monstrous, crooked as a ram's horn, camel backed, hump backed, hunch backed, bunch backed, crook backed, bandy, bandy legged, bow legged, bow kneed, knock kneed, splay footed, club footed, round shouldered, snub nosed, curtailed of one's fair proportions, stumpy, gaunt, bloated, scalene, simous, taliped, talipedic, all manner of ways, crooked as a Virginia fence.