antic
[noun]
Synonyms: prank, caper, dido(es), frolic, lark, monkeyshine(s), shenanigan, shine(s), tomfoolery, trick
[adjective]
Synonyms: fantastic, bizarre, grotesque, frolicsome, playful, rollicking, sprightly, frisky, gamesome, mischiefful, mischievous, prankful, prankish, pranky, roguish

---

Contrasted words: prudent, sensible, wise, conventional, formal, grave, sedate, serious, solemn, somber, constrained, controlled, curbed, guarded, inhibited, restrained
Related Words: artifice, wile, romp, foolish, comic, comical, farcical, laughable, ludicrous, gay, lively, spirited, light, whimsical, casual, easy, suave

[TahlilGaran] English Synonym Dictionary ▲

antic noun, adjective, & verb. ['antɪk] Also antique. See also ANTIQUE. E16.
[Italian antico ancient, from Latin antiquus, anticus ANTIQUE, used in English = grottesco: see GROTESQUE.]
A. noun.
1. A grotesque or absurd posture or action. Usu. in pl. E16.
■ J. Montague For an instant / you smile to see / his antics.

2. Architecture & Art. A grotesque or fantastic ornamental representation of a person, animal, or thing; a gargoyle's grotesque face. M16-M19.
■ C. Marlowe To make his monks..stand like apes, And point like antics at his triple crown.

3. A clown; a mountebank; a merry-andrew. arch. M16.
■ Defoe Dancing and hallooing like an antic.

4. A grotesque pageant or theatrical representation. L16-L17.
■ Shakespeare Love's Labour's Lost Some delightful ostentation, or show, or pageant, or antic, or firework.
b. adjective.
1. Grotesque, bizarre, fantastically incongruous. arch. M16.
■ E. Hall A fountayne of embowed woorke..ingrayled with anticke woorkes.
■ Shakespeare Hamlet How strange or odd some'er I bear myselfAs I perchance hereafter shall think meet To put an antic disposition on.
■ Swift Two rows of guards..dressed after a very antic manner.
■ Wordsworth An antic pair Of monkeys on his back.
■ E. Linklater Juan was moved to something between fear and antic laughter.

2. Of the face or features: grotesquely distorted (see sense A.2 above). L16-L17.
C. verb. Infl. -ck-.
1. verb intrans. & trans. with it. Perform antics, act as an antic. arch. L16.

2. verb trans. Make grotesque. rare (Shakes.). Only in E17.

■ anticly adverb (arch.) grotesquely M16.

[TahlilGaran] English Dictionary ▲