antic
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: ăn'tĭk
ipa: /ˈæn.tɪk/
rhymes: -æntɪk
Forms: form: antics
form: antick
Etymology: Probably from Italian antico (“ancient”), used to describe ancient wall paintings from classical times, from Latin antiquus (“venerable”). See also grottesco (“grotesque”). Doublet of antique.
Senses: topics: architecture
art
arts
glosses: A grotesque representation of a figure; a gargoyle.
glosses: A caricature.
examples: text: I'm fed up with your constant antics in class. Please behave yourself!
text: Two sets of manners, could the youth put on; / And, fraught with antics as the Indian bird / That writhes and chatters in her wiry cage, / Was graceful, when it pleased him, smooth and still / As the mute Swan that floats adown the stream, […]
ref: c. 1806–1809 (date written), William Wordsworth, “Book the Sixth. The Church-yard among the Mountains.”, in The Excursion, being a Portion of The Recluse, a Poem, London: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […], published 1814, →OCLC, page 263:
text: The woman opened the cover now and then, whereupon the kitten would put out its head, and indulge in playful antics.
ref: 1894 December – 1895 November, Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], published 1896, →OCLC:
text: I've 'ad about enough of you and your antics. I been thinking you over, you and your war and your Empire and all the rot of it.
ref: 1907, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “On Goat Island”, in The War in the Air: […], London: George Bell and Sons, published 1908, →OCLC, § 7, pages 299–300:
text: Toad ceased his frivolous antics at once. He became grave and depressed, and a dull pain in the lower part of his spine, communicating itself to his legs, made him want to sit down and try desperately not to think of all the possibilities.
ref: 1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC:
text: She put Rosebud through his paces in the ring, and received her share of applause at the antics of the clever horse.
ref: 1916, Vance Barnum, Joe Strong on the Trapeze:
text: Of their elders some, by imitating the antics of youth, strive to persuade themselves that their day is not yet over; they shout with the lustiest, but the war cry sounds hollow in their mouth;[…]
ref: 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter II, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:
text: I saw the barren horror of your people's leisure with the million entertained by the antics of a tiny few […]
ref: 1953, John Christopher, Blemish:
text: Pintsize: Wait, don’t you want to know why I’m tied up and hanging from the ceiling? / Faye: Not really. Nighty night! / Pintsize: Shit! My wacky antics have jumped the shark!
ref: 2007, Jeph Jacques, Time To Add A Cute Kid To The Cast Questionable Content Number 951
glosses: A ludicrous gesture or act; ridiculous behaviour; caper.
examples: text: The Grave-maker, like the professional fools and Falstaff, and like Hamlet himself, is an antic, a grotesque, one who demonstrates to men how foolish and
ref: 1978, Walter C. Foreman, The Music of the Close: The Final Scenes of Shakespeare’s Tragedies, page 90:
glosses: A grotesque performer or clown, buffoon.