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farce
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
farce
noun
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a farce by Feydeau
▪ The speed limits on that stretch of road are a farce.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But the incidents and the relationships developed along the way give it a wily balance of farce and sentiment.
▪ I think that we should stop this farce, here and now.
▪ More literary games, but here intellectual conceits are mixed with bawdy farce.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Farce

Farce \Farce\, n. [F. farce, from L. farsus (also sometimes farctus), p. p. pf farcire. See Farce, v. t.]

  1. (Cookery) Stuffing, or mixture of viands, like that used on dressing a fowl; forcemeat.

  2. A low style of comedy; a dramatic composition marked by low humor, generally written with little regard to regularity or method, and abounding with ludicrous incidents and expressions.

    Farce is that in poetry which ``grotesque'' is in a picture: the persons and action of a farce are all unnatural, and the manners false.
    --Dryden.

  3. Ridiculous or empty show; as, a mere farce. ``The farce of state.''
    --Pope.

Farce

Farce \Farce\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Farced, p. pr. & vb. n. Farcing.] [F. Farcir, L. farcire; akin to Gr. ???????? to fence in, stop up. Cf. Force to stuff, Diaphragm, Frequent, Farcy, Farse.]

  1. To stuff with forcemeat; hence, to fill with mingled ingredients; to fill full; to stuff. [Obs.]

    The first principles of religion should not be farced with school points and private tenets.
    --Bp. Sanderson.

    His tippet was aye farsed full of knives.
    --Chaucer.

  2. To render fat. [Obs.]

    If thou wouldst farce thy lean ribs.
    --B. Jonson.

  3. To swell out; to render pompous. [Obs.]

    Farcing his letter with fustian.
    --Sandys.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
farce

late 14c., "force-meat, stuffing;" 1520s, in the dramatic sense "ludicrous satire; low comedy," from Middle French farce "comic interlude in a mystery play" (16c.), literally "stuffing," from Old French farcir "to stuff," (13c.), from Latin farcire "to stuff, cram," which is of uncertain origin, perhaps from PIE *bhrekw- "to cram together," and thus related to frequens "crowded."\n\n... for a farce is that in poetry which grotesque is in a picture. The persons and action of a farce are all unnatural, and the manners false, that is, inconsisting with the characters of mankind. [Dryden, "A Parallel of Poetry and Painting"]\nAccording to OED and other sources, the pseudo-Latin farsia was applied 13c. in France and England to praise phrases inserted into liturgical formulae (for example between kyrie and eleison) at the principal festivals, then in Old French farce was extended to the impromptu buffoonery among actors that was a feature of religious stage plays. Generalized sense of "a ridiculous sham" is from 1690s in English.\n

Wiktionary
farce

Etymology 1 n. 1 (lb en uncountable) A style of humor marked by broad improbabilities with little regard to regularity or method; compare '''sarcasm'''. 2 (lb en countable) A motion picture or play featuring this style of humor. 3 (lb en uncountable) A situation abounding with ludicrous incidents. Etymology 2

vb. 1 To stuff with forcemeat. 2 (context figurative English) To fill full; to stuff. 3 (context obsolete English) To make fat. 4 (context obsolete English) To swell out; to render pompous.

WordNet
farce
  1. n. a comedy characterized by broad satire and improbable situations [syn: farce comedy, travesty]

  2. mixture of ground raw chicken and mushrooms with pistachios and truffles and onions and parsley and lots of butter and bound with eggs [syn: forcemeat]

Wikipedia
Farce

In theatre, a farce is a comedy that aims at entertaining the audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, and thus improbable. Farces are often highly incomprehensible plot-wise (due to the many plot twists and random events that occur), but viewers are encouraged not to try to follow the plot in order to avoid becoming confused and overwhelmed. Farce is also characterized by physical humor, the use of deliberate absurdity or nonsense, and broadly stylized performances. Farces have been written for the stage and film. Furthermore, a farce is also often set in one particular location, where all events occur.

Usage examples of "farce".

She wished, belatedly, that she had had the patience to stand by, as Lowenthal had done, and watch the farce unfold while wearing an expression of keen concentration.

Sometimes she wondered who she was deceiving by maintaining this farce: Eden, Dobie, or herself.

General Government had ample reason to believe it was about to go through the farce of enacting an ordinance of secession, when the treason was summarily stopped by the dispersion of the traitors.

Four or five days after, when I had almost forgotten the farce, I heard a carriage stopping at my door, and looking out of my window saw M.

I married and married and married moving from comedy to farce to burlesque with lightsome heart.

Bassam Little Popo, names that seemed to belong to some sordid farce acted in front of a sinister backcloth.

There was a music-hall farce which Little Tich used to act in, in which he was supposed to be factotum to a crook solicitor.

I have seen this farce acted several times with other people in the same part, but I have never seen anyone who could approach the utter baseness that Little Tich could get into these simple words.

Sometimes my attention failed altogether, and I would give it up and sit and stare at him, wondering whether, after all, it would not be better to use him as a central figure in a good farce and let all this other stuff slide.

I came prepared to annul this farce and send the chit back to Mull with a clear message for that Scottish ingrate who dares force his wishes over mine.

That Middleton would try to persuade the court that she had consented to sex with him rendered the trial a humourless farce.

Operation Mousetrap was back to being a disastrous balls-up -the rapist clean away, a policewoman knocked about, the farce with the couple in the car, and to cap it all, he had no bloody fags left.

It gained Fritz Leiber a Hugo as the best science-fiction novel of 1958 and catapulted him right back into the limelight, but then he decided that satire was being overdone and he would try farce.

It was widely agreed that while her tragic heroines were most excellently realized, Miss Parr had a particular gift for the nuance of character in the comedies, and the sharp timing and physical humor of farces.

And if anyone thinks these instances edge too near to farce, there are John of Lancaster, who commits his supreme treachery without an inkling, apparently, of its depravity, and Cloten, who goes to his most unspeakable crime in precisely the spirit which Professor Stoll so exhaustively documents.