burlesque
/bə(ɹ)ˈlɛsk/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.10 in modern English
20
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A variety adult entertainment show, usually including titillation such as striptease, most common from the 1880s to the 1930s.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "It is a dispute among the critics, whether burlesque poetry runs best in heroic verse, like that of the Dispensary, or in doggerel, like that of Hudibras."
- "Podunk. A term applied to an imaginary place in burlesque writing or speaking."
- "Burlesque is therefore of two kinds; the first represents mean persons in the accoutrements of heroes, the other describes great persons acting and speaking like the basest among the people."
- "The dull burlesque appeared with impudence, / And pleased by novelty in spite of sense."
- "“H'm !” he said, “so, so—it is a tragedy in a prologue and three acts. I am going down this afternoon to see the curtain fall for the third time on what […] will prove a good burlesque ; but it all began dramatically enough. It was last Saturday […] that two boys, playing in the little spinney just outside Wembley Park Station, came across three large parcels done up in American cloth. […]”"
- "Who is it that admires, and from the heart is attached to, national representative assemblies, but must turn with horror and disgust from such a profane burlesque and abominable perversion of that sacred institute?"
Etymology
Origin
- Source language: French
Word Breakdown
- Root: burlesque, burlesco
Usage
Inflected Forms
more burlesque (comparative)
most burlesque (superlative)
burlesk (alternative, obsolete)
burlesques (plural)
burlesques (present, singular)
burlesquing (participle, present)
burlesqued (participle, past)
burlesqued (past)