Definitions

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

  • noun A written attack ridiculing a person, group, or institution.
  • transitive verb To ridicule or satirize in a lampoon.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To abuse in a lampoon; write lampoons against.
  • noun A sarcastic writing aimed at a person's character, habits, or actions; a personal satire; a sarcastic diatribe; humorous abuse in writing.
  • noun Synonyms Lampoon, Pasquinade, Invective, Satire. The difference between lampoon and pasquinade is not great, but perhaps a lampoon is more malicious, more directly aimed to insult and degrade, while a pasquinade is shorter and of a lighter nature. (See the history of pasquinade, under the definition. See also satire.) An invective is a verbal onslaught, generally spoken but possibly written, designed to bring reproach upon another person, present or absent; as, the invectives of Demosthenes against Philip, of Cicero against Verres, of Queen Margaret against Richard (Shak., Rich. III., i. 3). An invective differs from a satire, in its intensity and in its lack of reformatory purpose.

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

  • noun A personal satire in writing; usually, malicious and abusive censure written only to reproach and distress.
  • noun Any satire ridiculing or mocking a person, activity, or institution by representing its character or behavior in an exaggerated or grotesque form; the representation may be written, filmed, or performed as a live skit, and may be intended as a severe reproach, or as good-natured humor.
  • transitive verb To subject to abusive ridicule expressed in a work of art; to make (a person, behavior, or institution) the subject of a lampoon.

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

  • noun A written attack ridiculing a person, group, or institution.
  • noun A light, good-humored satire.
  • verb To satirize or poke fun at.

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

  • verb ridicule with satire
  • noun a composition that imitates or misrepresents somebody's style, usually in a humorous way

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French lampon, perhaps from lampons, let us drink (from a common refrain in drinking songs), first person pl. imperative of lamper, to gulp down, of Germanic origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French lampon.

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Examples

  • Lucky for Littell he was writing, as it turns out, for an appreciative (French) audience; they seem aware, largely, of the fact that the novel has a right to present its horrors as horrible; its subtle arguments without convenient keys and its jokes quite bitter if the world they lampoon is inarguably cruel.

    Our Stories 2009

  • Thanks for those links :) Obviously I assumed they were 'lampooning' the sort of show I mentioned I'll use the word lampoon at any given opportunity...) it just seems a bit of a random one to choose!

    Fuzz of a Paul-less nature... annawaits 2006

  • While there is no official word about whether its development owes any direct thanks to Roberts 'Hell House Outreach kits -- odds are strong that the lampoon is a more than fitting homage for a profoundly anti-sex, anti-equality message that belongs buried in the dark ages of antiquity.

    Theresa Darklady Reed: Halloween "Hell Houses" Act Out Depraved Christian Wet Dreams 2008

  • Joining the lampoon will be the likes of Kim Basinger, Chevy Chase and Ringo Starr.

    There Is Nothing Like This Dame 2008

  • There was a bitter and personal quarrel and rivalry betwixt the author of this libel, a name which it richly deserves, and Lord President Stair; and the lampoon, which is written with much more malice than art, bears the following motto:

    The Bride of Lammermoor 2008

  • Though Shakespeare was using the word to lampoon the pretentiousness of Elizabethan pedagogues, there was a joy in the cascade of vowels and consonants that beat anything I had heard on television.

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph Max Davidson 2011

  • Lord President Stair; and the lampoon, which is written with much more malice than art, bears the following motto:

    The Bride of Lammermoor Walter Scott 1801

  • Lord Rochester's frolics in the character of a mountebank are well known, and the speech which he made upon the occasion of his first turning itinerant doctor, has been often printed; there is in it a true spirit of satire, and a keenness of lampoon, which is very much in the character of his lordship, who had certainly an original turn for invective and satirical composition.

    The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland Cibber, Theophilus, 1703-1758 1753

  • Lord Rochester's frolics in the character of a mountebank are well known, and the speech which he made upon the occasion of his first turning itinerant doctor, has been often printed; there is in it a true spirit of satire, and a keenness of lampoon, which is very much in the character of his lordship, who had certainly an original turn for invective and satirical composition.

    The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) Volume II Theophilus Cibber 1730

  • The so-called lampoon is designed to provoke outrage against Google's perceived privacy intrusions, but some viewers may find the privacy group's tactics even more outrageous.

    E-Commerce Times 2010

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