satire

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: sat=ire

CIDE DICTIONARY

satire, n. [L. satira, satura, fr. satura (sc. lanx) a dish filled with various kinds of fruits, food composed of various ingredients, a mixture, a medley, fr. satur full of food, sated, fr. sat, satis, enough: cf. F. satire. See Sate, Sad, a., and cf. Saturate.].

•  A composition, generally poetical, holding up vice or folly to reprobation; a keen or severe exposure of what in public or private morals deserves rebuke; an invective poem; as, the Satires of Juvenal.  [1913 Webster]
•  Keeness and severity of remark; caustic exposure to reprobation; trenchant wit; sarcasm.  [1913 Webster]

Syn. -- Lampoon; sarcasm; irony; ridicule; pasquinade; burlesque; wit; humor.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

satire, n.
1 the use of ridicule, irony, sarcasm, etc., to expose folly or vice or to lampoon an individual.
2 a work or composition in prose or verse using satire.
3 this branch of literature.
4 a thing that brings ridicule upon something else.
5 Rom. Antiq. a poetic medley, esp. a poem ridiculing prevalent vices or follies.

Etymology

F satire or L satira later form of satura medley

DEVIL DICTIONARY

satire

n. An obsolete kind of literary composition in which the vices and follies of the author's enemies were expounded with imperfect tenderness. In this country satire never had more than a sickly and uncertain existence, for the soul of it is wit, wherein we are dolefully deficient, the humor that we mistake for it, like all humor, being tolerant and sympathetic. Moreover, although Americans are "endowed by their Creator" with abundant vice and folly, it is not generally known that these are reprehensible qualities, wherefore the satirist is popularly regarded as a soul-spirited knave, and his ever victim's outcry for codefendants evokes a national assent.

Hail Satire! be thy praises ever sung
In the dead language of a mummy's tongue,
For thou thyself art dead, and damned as well --
Thy spirit (usefully employed) in Hell.
Had it been such as consecrates the Bible
Thou hadst not perished by the law of libel.
Barney Stims

THESAURUS

satire

Atticism, English sonnet, Goliardic verse, Horatian ode, Hudibrastic verse, Italian sonnet, Petrarchan sonnet, Pindaric ode, Rabelaisian, Sapphic ode, Shakespearean sonnet, agile wit, alba, amoebean verse, anacreontic, balada, ballad, ballade, banter, black humor, bucolic, burlesque, canso, caricature, cartoon, causticity, chaffing, chanson, clerihew, comedy, concrete poetry, cubist poetry, cynicism, dirge, dithyramb, dramatic poetry, dry wit, eclogue, elegiac poetry, elegy, epic, epic poetry, epigram, epithalamium, epode, epopee, epopoeia, epos, erotic poetry, esprit, exaggeration, farce, georgic, ghazel, haiku, hatchet job, heroic poetry, humor, idyll, imagist verse, imitation, innuendo, invective, irony, jingle, lampoon, light verse, limerick, lyric, madrigal, malicious parody, melic poetry, metaphysical poetry, mock-heroic poetry, mockery, monody, narrative poem, narrative poetry, nimble wit, nursery rhyme, ode, oral poetry, palinode, parody, pasquil, pasquin, pasquinade, pastiche, pastoral, pastoral elegy, pastorela, pastourelle, persiflage, pleasantry, poem, poison pen, polyphonic prose, pretty wit, prose poetry, prothalamium, quick wit, raillery, ready wit, rhyme, ridicule, rondeau, rondel, roundel, roundelay, runic verse, salt, sarcasm, satiric wit, satirical poetry, savor of wit, sestina, slapstick, slapstick humor, sloka, song, sonnet, sonnet sequence, spoof, spoofery, spoofing, squib, stichomythia, subtle wit, symbolist verse, take-off, takeoff, tanka, tenso, tenzone, threnody, travesty, triolet, troubadour poem, vers de societe, verse, verselet, versicle, villanelle, virelay, visual humor, wicked imitation, wit

ROGET THESAURUS

satire

Ridicule

N ridicule, derision, sardonic smile, sardonic grin, irrision, scoffing, mockery, quiz, banter, irony, persiflage, raillery, chaff, badinage, quizzing, asteism, squib, satire, skit, quip, quib, grin, parody, burlesque, travesty, travestie, farce, caricature, buffoonery, practical joke, horseplay, scorn, contempt, derisory, derisive, mock, mocking, sarcastic, ironic, ironical, quizzical, burlesque, Hudibrastic, scurrilous, in ridicule.

Disapprobation

N disapprobation, disapproval, improbation, disesteem, disvaluation, displacency, odium, dislike, dispraise, discommendation, blame, censure, obloquy, detraction, disparagement, depreciation, denunciation, condemnation, ostracism, black list, animadversion, reflection, stricture, objection, exception, criticism, sardonic grin, sardonic laugh, sarcasm, insinuation, innuendo, bad compliment, poor compliment, left-handed compliment, satire, sneer, taunt, cavil, carping, censoriousness, hypercriticism, reprehension, remonstrance, expostulation, reproof, reprobation, admonition, increpation, reproach, rebuke, reprimand, castigation, jobation, lecture, curtain lecture, blow up, wigging, dressing, rating, scolding, trimming, correction, set down, rap on the knuckles, coup de bec, rebuff, slap, slap on the face, home thrust, hit, frown, scowl, black look, diatribe, jeremiad, jeremiade, tirade, philippic, clamor, outcry, hue and cry, hiss, hissing, sibilance, sibilation, catcall, execration, chiding, upbraiding, exprobation, abuse, vituperation, invective, objurgation, contumely, hard words, cutting words, bitter words, evil-speaking, bad language, personality, disapproving, scandalized, disparaging, condemnatory, damnatory, denunciatory, reproachful, abusive, objurgatory, clamorous, vituperative, defamatory, satirical, sarcastic, sardonic, cynical, dry, sharp, cutting, biting, severe, withering, trenchant, hard upon, censorious, critical, captious, carping, hypercritical, fastidious, sparing of praise, grudging praise, disapproved, chid, in bad odor, blown upon, unapproved, unblest, at a discount, exploded, weighed in the balance and found wanting, blameworthy, reprehensible, to blame, worthy of blame, answerable, uncommendable, exceptionable, not to be thought of, bad, vicious, unlamented, unbewailed, unpitied, with a wry face, reproachfully, Int, it is too bad!, it won't do, it will never do!, marry come up!, Oh!, come!, 'sdeath!, forbid it Heaven!, God forbid, Heaven forbid!, out upon, fie upon it!, away with!, tut!, O tempora!, O mores!, shame!, fie, fie for shame!, out on you!, tell it not in Gath!.