ribald

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“
We must do our best to be frivolous and ribald, and supply a proper foreground.

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Definitions (9)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. adjective Characterized by or indulging in vulgar, lewd humor.
  2. noun A vulgar, lewdly funny person.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (3)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

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Examples (50)

  • She was amusing, slightly ribald, and a little malicious, but very good fun, a worldly, joyful animal, ecstatically happy. —  Tether's End (Hide My Eyes) - Margery Allingham - Campion 17: 1958
  • Traditionally, Coyote is ribald, amoral and completely self-centered. —  F ;SF; - vol 087 issue 04-05 - October-November 1994
  • In Mundania that was the suppression of certain political, ribald, or otherwise objectionable speaking or writing and it happened a lot. —  Zombie Lover
  • Boisterous, ribald, and ultimately shattering, Ken Kesey's _One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest_ is the seminal novel of the 1960s that has left an indelible mark on the literature of our time. —  CiteULike: Everyone's library
  • Not a few of the fabliaux are cynically gross--ribald but not voluptuous. —  A History of French Literature Short Histories of the Literatures of the World: II.
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

bawdy ·  obscene ·  scurrilous ·  lewd ·  raucous ·  derisive ·  irreverent ·  immodest ·  sardonic ·  vituperative ·  flippant ·  boisterous
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. From Middle English ribaud, ribald person, from Old French, from riber, to be wanton, of Germanic origin; see wer-2 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English ribald, ribold, rebald, ribaud, rybaud, ribaut = Icelandic ribbaldi = Middle High German ribalt, from Old French ribald, ribaud, ribauld, ribaut, French ribaud = Provencal ribaut = Spanish Portuguese ribaldo = Italian ribaldo, rubaldo (Middle Latin ribaldus) (feminine Old French ribaude, Middle Latin ribalda), a lewd, base person, a ruffian, ribald, also, without moral implication, a stout fellow, a porter, guard, soldier, etc. (see ribaud); of uncertain origin; perhaps (with suffix -ald) from Old High German hrīpā, Middle High German rībe, a prostitute; cf. Old French riber, toy, wanton.
 

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/ˈrɪbəld/
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