farce
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Farce
English
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /fɑːs/
Audio (UK): (file) - (General American) enPR: färs, IPA(key): /fɑɹs/
Audio (US): (file)
- Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)s
Etymology 1
Borrowed from Middle French farce (“comic interlude in a mystery play”, literally “stuffing”). Doublet of farse.
Noun
farce (countable and uncountable, plural farces)
- (uncountable) A style of humor marked by broad improbabilities with little regard to regularity or method.
- (countable) A motion picture or play featuring this style of humor.
- The farce that we saw last night had us laughing and shaking our heads at the same time.
- 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
- Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language […]; his clerks […] understood him very well. If he had written a love letter, or a farce, or a ballade, or a story, no one, either clerks, or friends, or compositors, would have understood anything but a word here and a word there.
- (uncountable) A situation abounding with ludicrous incidents.
- The first month of labor negotiations was a farce.
- 2012 May 9, Jonathan Wilson, “Europa League: Radamel Falcao's Atlético Madrid rout Athletic Bilbao”, in the Guardian:
- The first match in the magnificent new national stadium was a Euro 2012 qualifier between Romania and France that soon descended into farce as the pitch cut up and players struggled to maintain their footing. Amorebieta at times seemed to be paying homage to that game, but nobody else seemed to have a problem; it was just that Falcao was far better than him.
- (uncountable) A ridiculous or empty show.
- 2019, Stephanie Butnick, Liel Leibovitz, Mark Oppenheimer, The Newish Jewish Encyclopedia - From Abraham to Zabar's and Everything in Between:
- The United States, he declared, was "a farce controlled by dirty, hook-nosed, circumcised Jew bastards."
Hypernyms
Coordinate terms
Derived terms
Translations
style of humor
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situation full of ludicrous incidents
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ridiculous or empty show
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See also
Etymology 2
Verb from Middle English farcen, from Old French farsir, farcir, from Latin farciō (“to cram, stuff”). Doublet of farse.
Verb
farce (third-person singular simple present farces, present participle farcing, simple past and past participle farced)
- (transitive) To stuff with forcemeat or other food items.
- 1923, Walter de la Mare, Seaton's Aunt:
- The lunch […] consisted […] of […] lobster mayonnaise, cold game sausages, an immense veal and ham pie farced with eggs, truffles, and numberless delicious flavours; besides kickshaws, creams and sweetmeats.
- (transitive, figurative) To fill full; to stuff.
- 1678, Robert Sanderson, Pax Ecclesiae:
- The first principles of religion should not be farced with school points and private tenets.
- (transitive, obsolete) To make fat.
- 1599 (first performance), B. I. [i.e., Ben Jonson], The Comicall Satyre of Euery Man out of His Humor. […], London: […] [Adam Islip] for William Holme, […], published 1600, →OCLC, Act V, scene iii, signature [P iiij], recto:
- [I]f thou would’ſt farce thy leane Ribs with it [pork] too, they would not (like ragged Lathes) rub out ſo many Dublets as they do: […]
- (transitive, obsolete) To swell out; to render pompous.
- 1615, George Sandys, “(please specify the page)”, in The Relation of a Iourney Begun An: Dom: 1610. […], London: […] [Richard Field] for W. Barrett, →OCLC:
- farcing his letter with fustian
- Alternative form of farse (“to insert vernacular paraphrases into (a Latin liturgy)”)
Translations
Noun
farce
Further reading
- “farce”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “farce”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
- “farce”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
Anagrams
Czech
Noun
farce
French
Hausa
Italian
Norman
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