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What is "clown"

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clown
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
clown
I.noun
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Some clown cut in front of me on the freeway this morning and almost hit me.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A cannibal I knew refused to eat clowns.
▪ Her orange-red hair was worn bouffant, and her orange lipstick made her look like a small circus clown.
▪ Howie is a well-known writer and clown.
▪ Maguire, matter of fact, is much like the class clown who sits three bar stools away watching the game.
▪ Only two or three clowns dressed up and nothing much took place.
▪ Specimens of this anemone have been seen with as many two dozen clown anemonefish nestled among their tentacles.
▪ The twins, at almost eleven, were clowns, especially Shaw, who was beginning a career as the family subversive.
II.verb
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Stop clowning around and get back to work.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But Garvey and Lucie had to clown more than before.
▪ Harvey was clowning around pretending to be a gunman, which was his way of being sarcastic to me.
▪ He had no idea that people thought he was clowning.
▪ Others spend the majority of their time clowning.
▪ People riotously reel around here, fighting, fondling, tittering, clowning.
▪ They are clowning for the camera.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Clown

Clown \Clown\, v. i. To act as a clown; -- with it. [Obs.]

Beshrew me, he clowns it properly indeed.
--B. Jonson.

Clown

Clown \Clown\ (kloun), n. [Cf. Icel. klunni a clumsy, boorish fellow, North Fries. kl["o]nne clown, dial. Sw. klunn log, Dan. klunt log, block, and E. clump, n.]

  1. A man of coarse nature and manners; an awkward fellow; an ill-bred person; a boor.
    --Sir P. Sidney.

  2. One who works upon the soil; a rustic; a churl.

    The clown, the child of nature, without guile.
    --Cowper.

  3. The fool or buffoon in a play, circus, etc.

    The clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickle o'the sere.
    --Shak.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
clown

1560s, clowne, also cloyne, "rustic, boor, peasant," origin uncertain. Perhaps from Scandinavian dialect (compare Icelandic klunni "clumsy, boorish fellow;" Swedish kluns "a hard knob; a clumsy fellow," Danish klunt "log, block"), or akin to North Frisian klönne "clumsy person." Or, less likely, from Latin colonus "colonist, farmer," though awareness of this word might have influenced the sense development in English.\n

\nMeaning "professional fool, professional or habitual jester" is c.1600. "The pantomime clown represents a blend of the Shakes[pearean] rustic with one of the stock types of the It. comedy" [Weekley]. Meaning "contemptible person" is from 1920s. Fem. form clowness attested from 1801.

clown

c.1600, "to play the clown onstage," from clown (n.); colloquial sense of "to behave inappropriately" (as in clown around, 1932) attested by 1928, perhaps from theatrical slang sense of "play a (non-comical) part farcically or comically" (1891). Related: Clowned; clowning.

Wiktionary
clown

n. 1 A performance artist often associated with a circus and typically characterised by bright, oversized clothing, a red nose, face paint, and a brightly colored wig and who performs slapstick. 2 A person who acts in a silly fashion. 3 (context UK English) A stupid person. 4 (context obsolete English) A man of coarse nature and manners; an awkward fellow; an illbred person; a boor. 5 (context obsolete English) One who works upon the soil; a rustic; a churl. vb. To act in a silly fashion.

Related phrases:
WordNet
clown

  1. n. a rude or vulgar fool [syn: buffoon]

  2. a person who amuses others by ridiculous behavior [syn: buffoon, merry andrew]

  3. v. act as or like a clown [syn: clown around, antic]

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Clown

Clowns are comic performers who employ slapstick or similar types of physical comedy, often in a mime style.

Clown (Korn song)

"Clown" is the fourth single by the American nu metal band Korn from their self-titled debut album.

Clown (comics)

The Clown is the name of three fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

Clown (disambiguation)

A clown is a performer who often reflects the humour and/or frailty of the human condition.

Clown or clowns may also refer to:

Clown (Emeli Sandé song)

"Clown" is a song by Scottish recording artist Emeli Sandé. It was released on 3 February 2013 as the fifth single from her debut studio album, Our Version of Events (2012). "Clown" was written by Sandé, Shahid Khan, Grant Mitchell and produced by Khan under his production name of Naughty Boy.

Clown (film)

Clown is a 2014 Canadian-American 3D supernatural horror film directed by Jon Watts, produced by Mac Cappuccino, Eli Roth and Cody Ryder, and written by Christopher D. Ford and Watts. The film stars Laura Allen, Andy Powers, and Peter Stormare. The visual effects for the clown monster were done by Alterian, Inc. and Tony Gardner. Principal photography began in November 2012, in Ottawa. The film was released in Italy on November 13, 2014, and was released in the UK on the 2 March, 2015 & United States on June 17, 2016, by Dimension Films.

Clown (Afroditi Frida song)

"Clown" ( Greek script: "Κλόουν") was the Greek entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988, performed in Greek by Afroditi Frida.

The song was performed fourteenth on the night, following Denmark's Kirsten & Søren with " Ka' du se hva' jeg sa'?" and preceding Norway's Karoline Krüger with " For vår jord". At the close of voting, it had received 10 points, placing 17th in a field of 21.

The song is sung from the perspective of a clown, with Frida expressing her joy at amusing others. She sings, however, that "I have a heart" and makes mention of the fact that she is required to be positive in her job even when she does not feel that way.

It was succeeded as Greek representative at the 1989 Contest by Mariana with " To Diko Sou Asteri".

Category:Eurovision songs of Greece Category:Eurovision songs of 1988 Category:1988 songs

Related phrases:

Usage examples of "clown".

Trever in on the background as they took an airbus fifty levels clown to the facility.

Thus we will patent the Cadbury clown fish, the British Petroleum stag coral, the Marks and Spencer moray eel, the Royal Bank of Scotland angelfish, and gliding silently overhead, the British Airways manta ray.

He resisted every effort to latch him to the tobacco teat and missed no opportunity to denounce his antismoking compatriots for the bunch of clowns they were.

When Ed McCully moved his family to Arajuno he asked Nate for an aerial survey of the Auca territory, and together they looked up and clown the Nushino River valley, where the Aucas were known to have been some seven years before.

I guess it would be accurate to say that Sammy addicts were the rodeo clowns of the junkie universe, the baddest, most functional and most trustworthy of their kind.

In that part of town, smiths and metalwrights kept company among the barraters, clowns and jossmen who lived off the excess funds spilling from the pockets of ranchers come to market.

This story was almost out of character for Bradbury at the time, who apparently played the role of the club clown.

Hank had worked on the gear for the broncs and bulls, rewired the lights, repaired the PA system, found a barrel for the rodeo clown, tied the numbered collars on the team penning cattle and, finally, got into his chaps for the bull riding.

I fancied to myself the rural potentate surrounded by his body-guard of butler, pages, and blue-coated serving-men with their badges, while the luckless culprit was brought in, forlorn and chopfallen, in the custody of gamekeepers, huntsmen,, and whippers-in, and followed by a rabble rout of country clowns.

Of course, Shakespeare had his clowns and Dickens had his Sam Wellers, and in both cases, dialog was used that mangled the English language to some extent--but that was intended as humor.

In the instant before Dinh swung the edge again toward one of the legs of the giant clown, making the shimmering figure hop mindlessly back, Diana had seen that the Moulin Rouge chip was thinned down to no more than coin-thickness now and was white as a bone.

Is Michael Moore a courageous political documentarist who unmasks the chicanery all around us - or just a charlatan in a clown suit?

Rue Royale, showed him proud, careful mamas clothed as classical goddesses or Circassian maids, and watchful papas in the incongruous garb of pirates, lions, and clowns, escorting gorgeously costumed little boys and girls to the carriages that awaited them, drawn up just the other side of the gurgling gutters and tying up traffic for streets.

Louis Hieb of the University of Arizona, the author of many works on the koshare and the ritual clowns of the Hopis.

He was thinking that Francis Sayesva, in his role as koshare for his people, was also a sacred clown.