art characterized by an incongruous mixture of parts of humans and animals interwoven with plants distorted and unnatural in shape or size; abnormal and hideous; "tales of grotesque serpents eight fathoms long that churned the seas"; "twisted into monstrous shapes
distorted and unnatural in shape or size; abnormal and hideous; "tales of grotesque serpents eight fathoms long that churned the seas"; "twisted into monstrous shapes"
If someone or something is grotesque, they are very ugly. They tried to avoid looking at his grotesque face and his crippled body. = hideous + grotesquely gro·tesque·ly grotesquely deformed beggars
You say that something is grotesque when it is so unnatural, unpleasant, and exaggerated that it upsets or shocks you. the grotesque disparities between the wealthy few and nearly everyone else. a country where grotesque abuses are taking place. + grotesquely gro·tesque·ly He called it the most grotesquely tragic experience that he's ever had
Like the figures found in ancient grottoes; grottolike; wildly or strangely formed; whimsical; extravagant; of irregular forms and proportions; fantastic; ludicrous; antic
A grotesque is a person who is very ugly in a strange or unnatural way, especially one in a novel or painting. Grass's novels are peopled with outlandish characters: grotesques, clowns, scarecrows, dwarfs. In architecture and decorative art, a mural or sculptural decoration combining animal, human, and plant forms. The word derives from the Italian grottesco, in reference to the grottolike underground rooms (grotte) where such ornaments were found during the excavation of Roman buildings 1500. The grotesque was revived in the Renaissance, and a fashion for it in 16th-century Italy quickly spread to the rest of Europe; it was used most frequently in fresco decoration (painted, carved, or molded) until the 19th century