farce
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
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to season (a speech or composition), especially with witty material.
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Obsolete. to stuff; cram.
noun
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a broadly humorous play based on the exploitation of improbable situations
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the genre of comedy represented by works of this kind
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a ludicrous situation or action
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Also: farcemeat. another name for forcemeat
verb
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to enliven (a speech, etc) with jokes
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to stuff (meat, fowl, etc) with forcemeat
Other Word Forms
- unfarced adjective
Etymology
Origin of farce
First recorded in 1300–50; (for the noun) Middle English fars “stuffing,” from Middle French farce, from Vulgar Latin farsa (unrecorded), noun use of feminine of Latin farsus, earlier fartus “stuffed,” past participle of farcīre “to stuff”; (for the verb) Middle English farsen, from Old French farcir, from Latin farcīre
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The Brit Awards have recognised the cream of British and global pop music since they were first held in 1977, but have often been peppered with scandal and farce.
From Barron's
That aside, the film’s barrage of scenes, sketches, shout-outs and absurdist scenarios leading up to the climactic wine-making championship are largely harmless flights of farce.
From Los Angeles Times
A favorite Broadway actress sang “The Rochester Knockings at Barnum’s Hotel,” and Mysterious Knockings, “a new farce full of glorious fun and frolic,” played at a popular theater.
From Literature
"To sentence my 69-year-old father under the pretext that his actions lowered the 'likelihood' of my return to stand trial is not justice; it is a judicial farce," she said.
From Barron's
Students treat institutional rituals as a farce and openly mock their principal - calling him Yamdoot after the Hindu god of death - a blustering figure who addresses them as "My dear donkey".
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
