caricature

• caricatura (archaic)

From French caricature, from Italian caricatura. Has no relation to character, which is instead ultimately from Ancient Greek χαρακτήρ (kharaktḗr, “type, nature, character”).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɛɹɪkət͡ʃʊɚ/, /ˈkɛɹɪkət͡ʃɚ/, (rare) /kəˈɹɪkət͡ʃʊɚ/, (also rare) /kəˈɹɪkət͡ʃɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkæɹɪkətʃʊə/, /ˈkæɹɪkətʃə/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

caricature (plural caricatures)

1. A pictorial representation of someone in which distinguishing features are exaggerated for comic effect.
   • 2006 March 7, Shu-ling Ko, “Cartoonists decry the lack of interest in their talents”, in Taipei Times‎^[1], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2006-12-30, Taiwan News, page 3‎^[2]:

     Lo Ching-chong (羅慶忠), better known as L.C.C., showed off a caricature of Lu he did in 2001. In the black-and-white drawing, Lu sports a bird's nest-like hairdo, with a bird perched in it.

   • 2012 May 24, Nathan Rabin, “Film: Reviews: Men In Black 3”, in The Onion AV Club‎^[3]:

     Men In Black 3 lacks the novelty of the first film, and its take on the late ’60s feels an awful lot like a psychedelic dress-up party, all broad caricatures and groovy vibes.

2. A grotesque misrepresentation.
   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 3, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

     A grotesque caricature of virtue.

   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     Anything more appalling than this jumbled mass of the remains of a departed race I cannot imagine, and what made it even more dreadful was that in this dry air a considerable number of the bodies had simply become desiccated with the skin still on them, and now, fixed in every conceivable position, stared at us out of the mountain of white bones, grotesquely horrible caricatures of humanity.

   • 1994 October, Harry Hay, “Focussing On NAMBLA Obscures The Issues”, in Gay Community News, page 18:

     They were ignoring that the feckless, toothless caricature of a world parliament — the UN — needed American money in order to keep going and would do anything to get our moolah!

3. (computing) In facial recognition systems, a face that has been modified to look less like the average face, and thus more distinctive.

caricature (not comparable)

1. Having the characteristics of a caricature, grotesque.
   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 274–275:

     That singularly foolish old lady, her grandmother, got up a sort of caricature conspiracy, and Miss Churchill was to have been married to a coxcombical Jacobite, of the name of Trevanion; but he was arrested in the church, though he has since escaped by means of the jailor's daughter.

caricature (third-person singular simple present caricatures, present participle caricaturing, simple past and past participle caricatured)

1. To represent someone in an exaggerated or distorted manner.
   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 180:

     Their faults grew suddenly perceptible, and their absurdities an unfailing subject of mimicry. All these, in his hands, became singularly amusing. Francesca, who had little knowledge, and no envy, of the individuals so relentlessly caricatured, could not help being entertained.

Borrowed from Italian caricatura, from the verb caricare (“to load; to exaggerate”), cognate with French charger.

• IPA^(key): /ka.ʁi.ka.tyʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophone: caricatures
• Rhymes: -yʁ

caricature f (plural caricatures)

1. caricature

• “caricature”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• IPA^(key): /ka.ri.kaˈtu.re/
• Rhymes: -ure
• Hyphenation: ca‧ri‧ca‧tù‧re

caricature f

1. plural of caricatura

• IPA^(key): /kaɾikaˈtuɾe/ [ka.ɾi.kaˈt̪u.ɾe]
• Rhymes: -uɾe
• Syllabification: ca‧ri‧ca‧tu‧re

caricature

1. inflection of caricaturar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative