travest

English

Etymology

From French travestir, from Italian travestire.

Verb

travest (third-person singular simple present travests, present participle travesting, simple past and past participle travested)

1. (uncommon, formal, transitive) to travesty; to disguise; to parody; to demean. [from 17th c.]
   • 1678, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, “Of the Womens Appartment. The Principal Heads” (chapter XVII), in J. P., transl., The Six Voyages of John Baptiſta Tavernier, London, page 89:

     I have not much endeavour'd to make any diſcoveries of it, and it is a hard matter to give any account thereof, without ſome hazard of traveſting Hiſtory into Romance.

   • 1832, Johann Spurzheim, “Organ of Mirthfulness” (chapter XX), in Phrenology, or, The Doctrine of the Mental Phenomena, volume I, Boston: Marsh, Capen & Lyon, page 254:

     I grant that wit requires comparison and a contrast, be it incongruity, or even absurdity; in mean, burlesque or dignified objects ; be it in travesting, exaggerating or diminishing reality ; but I see no proof that these mental operations result from the faculty in question alone, and therefore from an intellectual faculty.

   • 1839, Alexander Kinmont, “Lecture the Eighth; On the Unity in Variety of the Human Race”, in Twelve Lectures on the Natural History of Man, and the Rise and Progress of Philosophy, Cincinnati: U. P. James, page 232:

     I have next shown you the Greeks, and " the wisdom" of their philosophy, often travesting, sometimes tarnishing the Christian religion : […]

   • 1963, Lewis A. Coser, editor, Sociology Through Literature, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, page 217:

     In the first place we shall often be discussing facts which have been so travested by propaganda that your knowledge of them is bound to be imperfect.

   • 1995, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, edited by Julia Markus, Dared and Done: The Marriage of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning, Alfred A. Knopf, page 20:

     The truth is that the child is not ‘like a boy,’ and that if you put him into a coat and waistcoat forthwith, he only would look like a small angel travested.