The Collaborative International Dictionary
Preposterous \Pre*pos"ter*ous\, a. [L. praeposterus; prae before + posterus coming after, latter. See Posterior.]
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Having that first which ought to be last; inverted in order. [Obs.]
The method I take may be censured as preposterous, because I thus treat last of the antediluvian earth, which was first in the order of nature.
--Woodward. -
Contrary to nature or reason; not adapted to the end; utterly and glaringly foolish; unreasonably absurd; perverted. ``Most preposterous conclusions.''
--Shak.Preposterous ass, that never read so far!
--Shak.Syn: Absurd; perverted; wrong; irrational; foolish; monstrous. See Absurd. [1913 Webster] -- Pre*pos"ter*ous*ly, adv. - Pre*pos"ter*ous*ness, n.
Wiktionary
adv. In a preposterous manner.
WordNet
adv. so as to arouse or deserve laughter; "her income was laughably small, but she managed to live well" [syn: laughably, ridiculously, ludicrously]
Usage examples of "preposterously".
It seemed to Peron a preposterously low number to control such a large structure.
I think: that his language is ostentatious, his tone cornball and melodramatic, his selection of facts preposterously self-serving.
It sounds so preposterously up-to-date and modernish for this darling, leisurely old place.
After all, red hair and long noses are not confined to the House of Elphberg, and the old story seemed a preposterously insufficient reason for debarring myself from acquaintance with a highly interesting and important kingdom, one which had played no small part in European history, and might do the like again under the sway of a young and vigorous ruler, such as the new King was rumoured to be.
Schlafly is preposterously demeaned with articles reporting that she is trying to remain “relevant.
Schlafly is preposterously demeaned with articles reporting that she is trying to remain "relevant.
Many were of impossibly glamorous dollies with preposterously inflated bosoms and very big hair.
Granted, it hadn't worked very well in the end for poor Kami, when the first Dog Soldier Kami went up against had feinted low and then slashed high, leaving his sword dropping from his fingers while his severed head tumbled through the air to land preposterously upright, a surprised expression on his dead face.
It was German silver, and crippled and rusty, but it was so preposterously out of place there that it was suggestive of a tattered exiled king among barbarians, and the majesty of its native position compelled respect even in its degradation.
At about five o'clock, just to make our day complete, a group of six noisy people arrived, three men and three women, dressed in the most preposterously Ralph Lauren-style hiking clothes--safari jackets and broad-brimmed canvas hats and suede hiking boots.
The strolling and chatting theatregoers were represented by preposterously oversimplified wireframes, a display technology unused these eighty years or so, clearly intended to irritate Hackworth.
It has a giggle bite of rum, three and a half tear a bites of rain, bubble mammary, super-seedy worm drive, and can perform some preposterously high number of trips.
It has a giggle bite of rum, three and a half tear a bites of ram, bubble mammary, super-seedy worm drive, and can perform some preposterously high number of trips.