Crossword clues for harlequin
harlequin
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Harlequin \Har"le*quin\ (h[aum]r"l[-e]*k[i^]n or -kw[i^]n), v. i. To play the droll; to make sport by playing ludicrous tricks.
Harlequin \Har"le*quin\ (h[aum]r"l[-e]*k[i^]n or -kw[i^]n), n.
[F. arlequin, formerly written also harlequin (cf. It,
arlecchino), prob. fr. OF. hierlekin, hellequin, goblin, elf,
which is prob. of German or Dutch origin; cf. D. hel hell.
Cf. Hell, Kin.]
A buffoon, dressed in party-colored clothes, who plays
tricks, often without speaking, to divert the bystanders or
an audience; a merry-andrew; originally, a droll rogue of
Italian comedy.
--Percy Smith.
As dumb harlequin is exhibited in our theaters.
--Johnson.
Harlequin bat (Zo["o]l.), an Indian bat ( Scotophilus ornatus), curiously variegated with white spots.
Harlequin beetle (Zo["o]l.), a very large South American beetle ( Acrocinus longimanus) having very long legs and antenn[ae]. The elytra are curiously marked with red, black, and gray.
Harlequin cabbage bug. (Zo["o]l.) See Calicoback.
Harlequin caterpillar. (Zo["o]l.), the larva of an American bombycid moth ( Euch[ae]tes egle) which is covered with black, white, yellow, and orange tufts of hair.
Harlequin duck (Zo["o]l.), a North American duck ( Histrionicus histrionicus). The male is dark ash, curiously streaked with white.
Harlequin moth. (Zo["o]l.) See Magpie Moth.
Harlequin opal. See Opal.
Harlequin snake (Zo["o]l.), See harlequin snake in the vocabulary.
Harlequin \Har"le*quin\, v. t. To remove or conjure away, as by a harlequin's trick.
And kitten, if the humor hit
Has harlequined away the fit.
--M. Green.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1580s, from Middle French harlequin, from Old French Herlequin, Hellequin, etc., leader of la maisnie Hellequin, a troop of demons who rode the night air on horses. He corresponds to Old English Herla cyning "King Herla," mythical character sometimes identified as Woden; possibly also the same as the German Erlkönig "Elf King" of the Goethe poem. Sometimes also associated with Herrequin, 9c. count of Boulogne, who was proverbially wicked. In English pantomime, a mute character who carries a magic wand. His Italian form, arlecchino, is one of the stock characters of commedia del'arte. From his ludicrous dress comes the English adjective meaning "particolored" (1779).
Wiktionary
1 brightly coloured, especially in a pattern like that of a harlequin clown's clothes 2 Of a yellowish-green n. 1 a pantomime fool, typically dressed in checkered clothes 2 A yellowish-green color. v
1 (context transitive English) To remove or conjure away, as if by a harlequin's trick. 2 (context intransitive English) To make sport by playing ludicrous tricks.
WordNet
n. a clown or buffoon (after the Harlequin character in the commedia dell'arte)
v. variegate with spots or marks; "His face was harlequined with patches"
Wikipedia
Harlequin (; , , Old French Harlequin) is the best-known of the zanni or comic servant characters from the Italian Commedia dell'arte. Traditionally believed to have been introduced by Zan Ganassa in the late 16th century, the role was definitively popularized by the Italian actor Tristano Martinelli in Paris in 1584–1585 and became a stock character after Martinelli's death in 1630.
The Harlequin is characterized by his chequered costume. His role is that of a light-hearted, nimble and astute servant, often acting to thwart the plans of his master, and pursuing his own love interest, Colombina, with wit and resourcefulness, often competing with the sterner and melancholic Pierrot. He later develops into a prototype of the romantic hero. Harlequin inherits his physical agility and his trickster qualities, as well as his name, from a mischievous " devil" character in medieval passion plays.
The Harlequin character came to England early in the 17th century and took center stage in the derived genre of the Harlequinade, developed in the early 18th century by John Rich. As the Harlequinade portion of English dramatic genre pantomime developed, Harlequin was routinely paired with the character Clown. As developed by Joseph Grimaldi around 1800, Clown became the mischievous and brutish foil for the more sophisticated Harlequin, who became more of a romantic character. The most influential such pair in Victorian England were the Payne Brothers, active during the 1860s and 1870s.
Harlequin is a comic servant character.
Harlequin may also refer to:
Harlequin is a strategy-based platform game for the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST released in 1992 by Gremlin Graphics.
The game was written by Andy Finlay, with graphics by Ed Campbell. It was produced by Pete Cook. The sound is credited to Imagitec, and was composed and arranged by Barry Leitch.
Tagline: Probably the strangest game ever!Harlequin was formerly a technology company based in Cambridge, UK and Cambridge, Massachusetts. They specialized in printing applications, graphical applications, law enforcement applications, and programming language implementations. Harlequin employees sometimes referred to themselves as "The 'Late Binding' company" and the company eventually evolved into a Think Tank for advanced technologies.
After Global Graphics purchased Harlequin, they spun off the Lisp, AI, and law enforcement application groups as Xanalys, and they spun off the Harlequin Dylan team as Functional Objects. Global Graphics acquired Harlequin primarily for the PostScript technologies, and it still continues to develop and market them under the Harlequin name.
Harlequin is the name of four clown-themed DC Comics characters.
The original Harlequin was a foe of the Golden Age Green Lantern, and later became his wife. The second Harlequin originally debuted as the Joker's Daughter, and was a member of the Teen Titans. The third Harlequin was a member of the Injustice Unlimited super-villain team, and battled Infinity, Inc. The fourth Harlequin has only appeared on a few occasions, and is an enemy of Alan Scott. The Harlequin was ranked 100th in Comics Buyer's Guide's "100 Sexiest Women in Comics" list, although this list does not specify which version of the character was chosen.
Harlequin, also known as Dark Forces in United States, is a 1980 Australian thriller film directed by Simon Wincer and starring Robert Powell, Carmen Duncan, David Hemmings and Broderick Crawford. The film is a modern-day version of Rasputin's story: the major characters have the same first names as Rasputin and the Romanov royal family; and their family name, 'Rast', is simply the word 'Tsar' backwards.
Harlequin is a Canadian rock band that formed in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1975. The band is best known for their hit singles "I Did It For Love," "Thinking of You," "Superstitious Feeling," and "Innocence".
In 2004, the band performed as Harlequin II, but in 2007 the band resurfaced under their original name and released a live album, On/Q Live, in 2009.
Harlequin (in US The Archer's Tale) is the first novel in The Grail Quest series by Bernard Cornwell. It begins a series of stories set in the middle of the fourteenth century, an age when the four horsemen of the apocalypse seem to have been released over Europe.
Harlequin is an album by American pianist Dave Grusin and American guitarist Lee Ritenour released in 1985, recorded for the GRP label. The album reached #2 on Billboard's Contemporary Jazz chart.
Harlequin earned a 1986 Grammy award for Best Arrangement On An Instrumental for 'Early A.M. Attitude' (track #2). The album also earned Grammy nominations for Best Engineered Recording, Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocals, and Best Pop Instrumental Performance.
Usage examples of "harlequin".
Gollancz has published his eighth story collection, The Coming of Vertumnus, and Boxtree has published Harlequin.
After I had examined the Pantaloons, Punches, Harlequins, and Merry Andrews, I went near the grating, where I saw all the nuns and boarders, some seated, some standing, and, without appearing to, notice any of them in particular, I remarked my two friends together, and very intent upon the dancers.
The clothes looked more like fancy-dress costumes than anything one could wear day to day: court jester crossed with harlequin crossed with Peter Pan, rainbow colours, zig-zag hems, Kate Greenaway layers of flowing fabrics, ballet tights and operatic coats for flower children.
He behaved like one frantic, and made almost as many mistakes while he was dressing Jones as I have seen made by Harlequin in dressing himself on the stage.
At present, neither Talboy nor The Harlequin were conscious of the new arrival from the second floor: Steve Kilroy At a turn on a small landing, Steve had just reached the right position for a long lunge down the last half dozen steps, when things happened very fast.
Whipping from the road, The Harlequin piloted his borrowed car in between a pair of pillars and along a curving drive which reminded Steve Kilroy of two previous places combined.
Steve Kilroy and The Harlequin, who were breaking apart at the top of the stairs.
Margo Lane could only hope that Steve Kilroy would fare better when he met The Harlequin than Margo herself had fared while trying to trace the absent killer!
The quadrille lasted one hour, and I took no part in it, but immediately after it, a Harlequin approached me with the impertinence which belongs to his costume, and flogged me with his wand.
Here and there that woods harlequin, the madrone, permitting itself to be caught in the act of changing its pea-green trunk to madder-red, breathed its fragrance into the air from great clusters of waxen bells.
In the living room the walls are covered with paintings, the best of the current crop, and the mantel, coffee table, Directoire Palissandre table, Louis XVI Harlequin table and built-in shelves between the windows are covered with sculpture: a tiny gold wire horse, little greened-copper figures, things that look like icicles and sand castles of brass.
The Donne Furlane was the piece, a comedy of art as they call it here-- or, as we say, a comedy of masks--wherein the stock characters of Harlequin, Columbine, Brighella and Pantalone are given a rag of a plot, and are expected to embroider that with follies, drolleries and obscenities according as their humour of the moment may dictate.
To please the actors, and especially my mother, I wrote a kind of melodrama, in which I brought out two harlequins.
Carlin Bertinazzi who played Harlequin, and was a great favourite of the Parisians, reminded me that he had already seen me thirteen years before in Padua, at the time of his return from St.
I liked, while her father and mother only laughed, and the silly Harlequin fretted and fumed at not being able to take the same liberties with his Dulcinea.