Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of or relating to farce.
  • adjective Resembling a farce; ludicrous.
  • adjective Ridiculously clumsy; absurd.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to or of the nature of a farce; droll; ludicrous; ridiculous; absurd.
  • Pertaining to farcy.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Pertaining to farce; appropriated to farce; ludicrous; unnatural; unreal.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to the disease called farcy. See farcy, n.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective resembling a farce; ludicrous; absurd

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective broadly or extravagantly humorous; resembling farce

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From farce + -ic-al, after comical, etc.

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Examples

  • I don't know if I should use the word farcical, but I think most of the teams you could pick without running through the thing about licensing.

    The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed 2011

  • He also faces a travel ban pending investigations on what he called "farcical accusations" of inciting violent protests in December.

    Reuters: Press Release 2012

  • Pets and dolls have taken the place of children in farcical-but-sad rituals previously reserved for children.

    REVIEW: The Children of Men by P.D. James 2006

  • Indeed, for visitors, part of the entertainment onboard the junk ultimately came from watching Chinese crew members participate in farcical tableaux vivantes that presented a grotesque versions of Chinese customs.

    The Romance of China: Excursions to China in U.S. Culture: 1776-1876 2005

  • The word farcical would bestow a generous description on "Scopes II".

    A Kansan's Contemplations 2005

  • 'geographical Carnival,' as we called the farcical Congress of last

    To the Gold Coast for Gold A Personal Narrative in Two Volumes.—Volume I Richard Francis Burton 1855

  • Playing devil’s advocate for a second, I have to conduct sickness reviews on staff and I refuse to get involved in farcical ‘Action Plans’ like the examples above.

    Swine Flu Threat To Police Officers. « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG Inspector Gadget 2009

  • DP NCOP member James Selfe said it was "very unfortunate" that the first formal NCOP meeting of this nature "ended in a situation which can only be described as farcical".

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1997

  • Public hearings on controversial draft legislation likely to have a substantial impact on the pharmaceutical industry were described as farcical by opposition political parties after amendments to the legislation were submitted as soon as the hearing began on Monday morning.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1997

  • In 2006, he was sentenced to four-and-a-half years during a trial that his legal defenders described as farcical.

    NYT > Home Page By ANDREW JACOBS 2011

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