[syn: antic, fantastic, fantastical, grotesque]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Grotesque \Gro*tesque"\ (gr[-o]*t[e^]sk"), a. [F., fr. It.
grottesco, fr. grotta grotto. See Grotto.]
1. Like the figures found in ancient grottoes; grottolike.
[1913 Webster]
2. Hence: Wildly or strangely formed; whimsical; extravagant;
of irregular forms and proportions; fantastic; ludicrous;
antic. "Grotesque design." --Dryden. "Grotesque
incidents." --Macaulay.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Grotesque \Gro*tesque\, n.
1. A whimsical figure, or scene, such as is found in old
crypts and grottoes. --Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
2. Artificial grotto-work.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
grotesque
adj 1: 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"
[syn: grotesque, monstrous]
2: ludicrously odd; "Hamlet's assumed antic disposition";
"fantastic Halloween costumes"; "a grotesque reflection in
the mirror" [syn: antic, fantastic, fantastical,
grotesque]
n 1: art characterized by an incongruous mixture of parts of
humans and animals interwoven with plants
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
125 Moby Thesaurus words for "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