caricature
noun
- rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way
verb
- to produce a caricature of
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈkɛɹɪkət͡ʃʊɚ/ / /ˈkɛɹɪkət͡ʃɚ/ / /kəˈɹɪkət͡ʃʊɚ/
adj
Etymology: From French caricature, from Italian caricatura, ultimately from Latin carrus, and so not related to character, which is instead ultimately from Ancient Greek χαρακτήρ (kharaktḗr, “type, nature, character”).
- Having the characteristics of a caricature, grotesque.
“That singularly foolish old lady, her grandmother, got up a sort of caricature conspiracy, and Miss Churchill was to have been married to a coxcombical Jacobite, of the name of Trevanion; but he was arrested in the church, though he has since escaped by means of the jailor's daughter.”
noun
Etymology: From French caricature, from Italian caricatura, ultimately from Latin carrus, and so not related to character, which is instead ultimately from Ancient Greek χαρακτήρ (kharaktḗr, “type, nature, character”).
- A pictorial representation of someone in which distinguishing features are exaggerated for comic effect.
“Lo Ching-chong (羅慶忠), better known as L.C.C., showed off a caricature of Lu he did in 2001. In the black-and-white drawing, Lu sports a bird's nest-like hairdo, with a bird perched in it.”
“Men In Black 3 lacks the novelty of the first film, and its take on the late ’60s feels an awful lot like a psychedelic dress-up party, all broad caricatures and groovy vibes.”
- A grotesque misrepresentation.
“A grotesque caricature of virtue.”
“Anything more appalling than this jumbled mass of the remains of a departed race I cannot imagine, and what made it even more dreadful was that in this dry air a considerable number of the bodies had simply become desiccated with the skin still on them, and now, fixed in every conceivable position, stared at us out of the mountain of white bones, grotesquely horrible caricatures of humanity.”
- In facial recognition systems, a face that has been modified to look less like the average face, and thus more distinctive.
verb
Etymology: From French caricature, from Italian caricatura, ultimately from Latin carrus, and so not related to character, which is instead ultimately from Ancient Greek χαρακτήρ (kharaktḗr, “type, nature, character”).
- To represent someone in an exaggerated or distorted manner.
“Their faults grew suddenly perceptible, and their absurdities an unfailing subject of mimicry. All these, in his hands, became singularly amusing. Francesca, who had little knowledge, and no envy, of the individuals so relentlessly caricatured, could not help being entertained.”