English
antic
Pronunciation Adjective

antic

  1. Playful, funny, absurd
  2. (architecture, arts) Grotesque, incongruous.
  3. (archaic) Grotesque, bizarre
  4. Obsolete form of antique#English|antique.
Related terms Translations Translations Noun

antic (plural antics)

  1. (architecture, arts, obsolete) A grotesque representation of a figure; a gargoyle.
  2. A caricature.
  3. (often in plural) A ludicrous gesture or act; ridiculous behaviour; caper.
    • 1814, William Wordsworth, The Excursion, Book the sixth
      And fraught with antics as the Indian bird / That writhes and chatters in her wiry cage.
    • 1908, H. G. Wells, The War in the Air, chapter IX, section 7
      I've 'ad about enough of you and your antics. I been thinking you over, you and your war and your Empire and all the rot of it. Rot it is! […] And all for nothin'. Jest silly prancing! Jest because you've got the uniforms and flags! Then you get […] all your silly fleet smashed up to rags. And you want to go on prancin' now! Look at the mischief you done! Look at the way you smashed up New York — the people you killed, the stuff you wasted. Can't you learn?
    • 2007, Jeph Jacques, Time To Add A Cute Kid To The Cast ↗ Questionable Content Number 951
      Pintsize: Wait, don’t you want to know why I’m tied up and hanging from the ceiling? / Faye: Not really. Nighty night! / Pintsize: Shit! My wacky antics have jumped the shark!
  4. A grotesque performer or clown, buffoon.
Translations Translations Translations Translations Verb

antic (antics, present participle anticking; past anticked, past participle anticked)

  1. (intransitive) To perform antics, caper.
  2. (obsolete) To make a fool of, to cause to look ridiculous.
    • circa 1603–1607 William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra, Act II, Scene VII:
      Gentle lords, let's part; / You see we have burnt our cheeks: strong Enobarb / Is weaker than the wine; and mine own tongue / Splits what it speaks: the wild disguise hath almost / Antick'd us all.
  3. (transitive, rare) To perform (an action) as an antic; to mimic ridiculously.
    • 1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Vintage 1993, page 70:
      She unfastened her dress, her arms arched thin and high, her shadow anticking her movements.
Translations Noun

antic (plural antics)

  1. (animation) A pose, often exaggerated, in anticipation of an action; for example, a brief squat before jumping


This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003
Offline English dictionary