Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The state or quality of being clownish; rusticity; coarseness or rudeness of behavior or language; incivility; awkwardness.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The manners of a clown; coarseness or rudeness of behavior.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun the state of being
clownish
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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SOCRATES: And ignorance, and what is termed clownishness, are surely an evil?
Philebus 2006
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And ignorance, and what is termed clownishness, are surely an evil?
PHILEBUS Plato 1972
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This is going to be a test for Sen. Obama; if he can get through this kind of clownishness without losing it, he will have earned whatever prize is at the end of the trail.
The Wright Stuff 2008
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I also find Rylance's outfit a tad too obvious in its clownishness.
Michael Giltz: Theater Reviews: Lombardi Scores a Field Goal; La Bete Better for Actors Michael Giltz 2010
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Like no one before him or since, he shows the clownishness of playing at revolution—clownishness that, in this novel, results in tragedy.
To the Barricades! Revolutionaries in Novels Joseph Epstein 2011
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I also find Rylance's outfit a tad too obvious in its clownishness.
Michael Giltz: Theater Reviews: "Lombardi" Scores A Field Goal; "La Bete" Better For Actors Michael Giltz 2010
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I can see how his combination of gentle clownishness and fierce curmudgeonliness would have a muse-like effect on the people he works with.
Serious and Silly Filmmaking in Denmark J. S. Marcus 2011
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Anyone who repeats the NPR spin majors in clownishness.
Send in the Clowns 2010
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I also find Rylance's outfit a tad too obvious in its clownishness.
Michael Giltz: Theater Reviews: "Lombardi" Scores A Field Goal; "La Bete" Better For Actors Michael Giltz 2010
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Tracy wholeheartedly rejects hard work (this is best captured in the episode called "The Natural Order," in which it is demonstrated that only in an "upside-down" world could Tracy be asked to sincerely labor), and so he relies on his preternatural clownishness and the coattails of his paternal writers and producers for success.
Zeeshan Aleem: Is 30 Rock the Most Racist Show on Television? 2010
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