Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Lacking or exhibiting a lack of reverence; disrespectful.
- adj. Critical of what is generally accepted or respected; satirical: irreverent humor.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Not reverent; manifesting or characterized by irreverence; deficient in veneration or respect: as, to be irreverent toward one's superiors or elders; an irreverent expression.
Wiktionary
- adj. Lacking proper respect or seriousness; sarcastic.
- adj. Disrespectful, cynical, cavilling, querulous, or vulgar, where one's own feelings, or especially deference to the feelings of others, customarily command silence, discretion, and circumspection.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Not reverent; showing a lack of reverence; expressive of a lack of veneration
WordNet 3.0
- adj. not revering god
- adj. showing lack of due respect or veneration
- adj. characterized by a lightly pert and exuberant quality
Etymologies
- ir- + reverent (Wiktionary)
Examples
“It manages to remain irreverent from beginning to end, throwing sucker punches when you least expect it.”
REVIEW: The Secret History of Science Fiction edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel
“We call it irreverent reverence," says Sabol, the company president.”
“Michael Atkinson at IFC News on 4: "[T] his is a raging, unsettling, rule-incinerating monster of a movie, treating the rules of orthodox narrative like toilet paper and engaging in irreverent structuralist hijinks that'd be hilarious if in fact the film wasn't chilling to the bone.”
“They thought the name irreverent, tongue-in-cheek, and it certainly breaks the ice among the wine-phobic.”
“The unusual poetic visualization of the source works, which could be described as irreverent cinematic homage, has the potential to renew the traditional reading of such literature.”
“Now, the last time I looked, the word irreverent meant, showing lack of due respect or veneration, which would make Top Gear quintessentially irreverent, not almost.”
“Sutherland's attempt in England to do away with the dreadful shape which causes a shudder to all who have lost a friend -- that of the coffin -- was called irreverent, because he suggested that the dead should be buried in wicker-work baskets, with fern-leaves for shrouds, so that the poor clay might the more easily return to mother earth.”
“That is true, possibly because they found the name too irreverent.”
“Lord of the Rings' had that very serious, grand, epic tone, and `The Hobbit' is much more mischievous and kind of irreverent, which is a breath of fresh air for me.”
“Newell: Dastan is very athletic and irreverent, which is definitely like Indiana Jones, but my own influences were great stories like "Kidnapped" and "Treasure Island" that I read as a child.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘irreverent’.
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common UA vocab. in US
Interesting, there is a traditional vocabulary of an Ukrainian, that differs from vocabulary of average American. It would be nice to explore it.
jackdaw, incongruous, cassock, vivid, magpie, humdrum, amongst, wonder, wandering, wheedling, wheedle, osseous and 368 more...
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Words For Novel (Part 3)
fibers, gypsy, polymer, schism, syphilitic garden..., holocaust, scrutinant, contemplate, aftermath, consequence, deadlock, impasse and 153 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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The Medley of Me
A jumble of words, sometimes contradictory, that add up to me. I'll probably be adding to this list for some time, because I'm a very complex individual. ;P
male, long-haired, big-eyed, writer, artist, guitarist, songsmith, talespinner, pilot, wannabe barnstormer, gypsy, cuddlesome and 209 more...
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generationnext's Words
petulant, vehement, pensive, lascivious, vacillate, histrionic, satiated, svelte, lithe, zeitgeist, viscous, sommelier and 526 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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Faves
nepenthe, cupidity, anodyne, obdurate, doleful, obsolescent, quale, piquant, velleity, inchoate, disport, facile and 366 more...
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Coruscatingly what?
List of adjectival terms, from aggressive to zippered, paired in printed materials with the adverb coruscatingly, identified by a simple query to Google Search (Books).
...propaedeutic...aggressive, angry, articulate, astringent, aware, beautiful, big, blinding, bright, brilliant, brutal, cerebral and 93 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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Favorites
machiavellian, mercurial, deus ex machina, synecdoche, litotes, phallic, freudian, metonymy, chrestomathy, falsifiable, gestalt, truthiness and 211 more...
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Listless
Nowhere else to put these yet.
sibilant, cloying, pithy, apologia, odyssey, amanuensis, pleasantries, ginormous, burnish, sojourn, quonset, over-under and 217 more...
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List of words to expand my vocabulary
does what it says on the tin, and is severely needed.
indolent, insolent, idly, divulge, tattle, benign, roguish, daintily, idle, dowdy, sordid, wanton and 242 more...
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amy's GRE 2012
gimmicks, kowtow, unpretentious, skeptical, cynical, somber, prevaricate, equivocate, requisite, embellish, impregnable, procrastinate and 307 more...
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GRE
acrimony, verisimilitude, tenebrious, tenebrous, dishabille, unfettered, deplorable, woebegone, credulity, naïveté, mitigate, meliorate and 475 more...
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Spelling Bee list 2011
Abalone, ablution, absolution, aboriginally, abstemious, academician, acclamation, accommodation, acculturation, acetic, acetone, acme and 590 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for irreverent.
PossibleUnderscore John Lennon was very irreverent and very intelligent.
-Brenda Lee
Jul 26, 2009