farce

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See also: Farce

English[edit]

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Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Borrowed from Middle French farce (“comic interlude in a mystery play”).

Noun[edit]

farce (countable and uncountable, plural farces)

  1. (uncountable) A style of humor marked by broad improbabilities with little regard to regularity or method.
  2. (countable) A motion picture or play featuring this style of humor.
    The farce that we saw last night had us laughing and shaking our heads at the same time.
    • 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square, OCLC 16832619:
      Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language […]; his clerks […] understood him very well. If he had written a love letter, or a farce, or a ballade, or a story, no one, either clerks, or friends, or compositors, would have understood anything but a word here and a word there.
  3. (uncountable) A situation abounding with ludicrous incidents.
    The first month of labor negotiations was a farce.
    • 2012 May 9, Jonathan Wilson, “Europa League: Radamel Falcao's Atlético Madrid rout Athletic Bilbao”, in the Guardian:
      The first match in the magnificent new national stadium was a Euro 2012 qualifier between Romania and France that soon descended into farce as the pitch cut up and players struggled to maintain their footing. Amorebieta at times seemed to be paying homage to that game, but nobody else seemed to have a problem; it was just that Falcao was far better than him.
  4. (uncountable) A ridiculous or empty show.
    The political arena is a mere farce, with all sorts of fools trying to grab power.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

From Middle English farcen, from Old French farsir, farcir, from Latin farciō (“to cram, stuff”).

Verb[edit]

farce (third-person singular simple present farces, present participle farcing, simple past and past participle farced)

  1. To stuff with forcemeat.
  2. (figuratively) To fill full; to stuff.
    • Bishop Sanderson
      The first principles of religion should not be farced with school points and private tenets.
  3. (obsolete) To make fat.
    • Ben Jonson
      if thou wouldst farce thy lean ribs
  4. (obsolete) To swell out; to render pompous.
    • Sandys
      farcing his letter with fustian

Further reading[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

French[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

farce f (plural farces)

  1. stuffing (for meat, etc)
  2. farce (play)

Related terms[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Hausa[edit]

Noun[edit]

farcḕ m (plural farā̀tā, possessed form farcèn)

  1. fingernail
    Synonyms: ƙumba

Italian[edit]

Noun[edit]

farce f

  1. plural of farcia

Norman[edit]

Etymology[edit]

EB1911 - Volume 01 - Page 001 - 1.svg This entry lacks etymological information. If you are familiar with the origin of this term, please add it to the page per etymology instructions. You can also discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.

Noun[edit]

farce f (plural farces)

  1. (Jersey) batter
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