Dictionary

clownish en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /ˈklaʊnɪʃ/ (UK)
• (US) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree English clown Proto-Indo-European *-iskos Proto-Germanic *-iskaz Proto-West Germanic *-isk Old English -isċ Middle English -isch English -ish English clownish From clown + -ish.

Meanings

1. Resembling or characteristic of a circus clown; comical, ridiculous.
   • Even worse, the zombies' clownish makeup, with a stark white base and black shoe polish around the eyes, looks amateurish. 1998, Bryan Senn, Drums of Terror: Voodoo in the Cinema:
   • Once again, City's defending was clownish. James McArthur drove into the area on the left and pulled a low cross towards the far post, where the horribly timid Gaël Clichy allowed Perch to bundle the ball past Costel Pantilimon. 2014 March 9, Jacob Steinberg, “Wigan shock Manchester City in FA Cup again to reach semi-finals”, in The Guardian:
   • Indeed, when in close quarters to Rooney, it must prove almost irresistible to stick a plastic moustache and silly clownish shoes on the potato-headed fool. 2005 May 14, Laura Barton, The Guardian:
2. (archaic) Pertaining to peasants; rustic.
3. (archaic) Uncultured, boorish; rough, coarse.
   • Large were his limbes, and terrible his looke, / And in his clownish hand a sharp bore speare he shooke. 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
   • "He is very plain, undoubtedly—remarkably plain:—but that is nothing compared with his entire want of gentility. I had no right to expect much, and I did not expect much; but I had no idea that he could be so very clownish, so totally without air. I had imagined him, I confess, a degree or two nearer gentility." 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter 4, in Emma: […], volume I, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC:

Forms

Deriveds

unclownish · clownishness · clownishly

Translations (11)

es payasesco (resembling a clown) · it claunesco (resembling a clown) · pl błaznowaty (resembling a clown) · it pagliaccesco (resembling a clown) · it clownesco (resembling a clown) · pl błazeński (resembling a clown) · es bufonesco (resembling a clown) · it buffonesco (resembling a clown) · fr clownesque (resembling a clown) · it giullaresco (resembling a clown) · sv pajasaktig (resembling a clown)