Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- Pertaining to or characteristic of clowns or rustics; like a clown; rude; coarse; awkward; ungainly.
- Abounding in clowns; dull; stupid; uncultured; unrefined: as, “a clownish neighbourhood,”
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Of or resembling a clown, or characteristic of a clown; ungainly; awkward.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Pertaining to
peasants ;rustic . - adjective
Uncultured ,boorish ;rough ,coarse . - adjective Like a circus
clown ;comical ,ridiculous .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective like a clown
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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but since the "literature" of the hack is so perverse and disturbing in its "message," the term clownish is too light and good natured to be appropriate.
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Calling you clownish is called "descending to your opponent's level".
Carry-Over Thread 2007
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November 13th, 2007 at 4: 49 pm stunney: Calling you clownish is called "descending to your opponent's level".
Carry-Over Thread 2007
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His demeanour was so blunt as sometimes might be termed clownish, yet there was in his language and manner a force and energy corresponding to his character, which impressed awe, if it did not impose respect; and there were even times when that dark and subtle spirit expanded itself, so as almost to conciliate affection.
Woodstock 1855
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An ailing mobster in a wheelchair and using an oxygen tank was sentenced Wednesday to seven years in prison for what a judge called a "clownish" murder-for-hire plot that was never carried out.
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An ailing mobster in a wheelchair and using an oxygen tank was sentenced Wednesday to seven years in prison for what a judge called a "clownish" murder-for-hire plot that was never carried out.
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His demeanour was so blunt as sometimes might be termed clownish, yet there was in his language and manner a force and energy corresponding to his character, which impressed awe, if it did not impose respect; and there were even times when that dark and subtle spirit expanded itself, so as almost to conciliate affection.
Woodstock; or, the Cavalier Walter Scott 1801
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Criticism as "grunt work" -- laboring on behalf of works of literature because they deserve intelligent analysis -- seems to me a perfectly respectable undertaking, especially when it's paired against the kind of clownish performances Anderson tries to defend.
Book Reviewing 2010
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Big, white suit jacket with black pinstripes, baggy black pants with white pinstripes -- kind of clownish, but looking heavier and healthier than in his Sex Pistols days.
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Its leader, the artist formerly known as Paris Lewis who now goes by the amusingly generic hyper-African moniker "Dr. Malik Zulu Shabazz," is the kind of clownish caricature Fox News loves to trot out at regular intervals.
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