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The comic actor in an opera.

Characteristic of, or like, a buffoon. "Buffoon stories." Macaulay. To divert the audience with buffoon postures and antic dances. Melmoth.

The arts and practices of a buffoon, as low jests, ridiculous pranks, vulgar tricks and postures. Nor that it will ever constitute a wit to conclude a tart piece of buffoonery with a "What makes you blush" Spectator.

Like a buffoon; consisting in low jests or gestures. Blair.

The practices of a buffoon; buffoonery.

Low; vulgar. [R.] Apish tricks and buffoonly discourse. Goodman.

A buffoon or merry-andrew; one that practices odd gesticulations; the Fool of the old play.

Swelling words without much meaning; bombastic language; fustian. Bombastry and buffoonery, by nature lofty and light, soar highest of all. Swift.

The fool or buffoon in a play, circus, etc. The clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickle o'the sere. Shak.

dress, the dress prescribed for appearance at the court of a sovereign. -- Court fool, a buffoon or jester, formerly kept by princes and nobles for their amusement. -- Court guide, a directory of the names and adresses of the nobility and gentry in a town. -- Court hand, the hand or manner of writing used in records…

One whose practice it is to raise mirth by odd tricks; a jester; a buffoon; a merry-andrew. Prior.

The quality of being droll; sportive tricks; buffoonery; droll stories; comical gestures or manners. The rich drollery of "She Stoops to Conquer." Macaulay.

and that these encase the germs of all future living things, inclosed one within another. Buffon.

One who counterfeits folly; a professional jester or buffoon; a retainer formerly kept to make sport, dressed fantastically in motley, with ridiculous accouterments. Can they think me . . . their fool or jester Milton. April fool, Court fool, etc. See under April, Court, etc. -- Fool's cap, a cap or hood to which bell…

A buffoon in the Middle Ages, who attended rich men's tables to make sport for the guests by ribald stories and songs.

A buffoon. See Gollard. [Obs.] Chaucer.

it of a theater, which formerly was on the ground, and without floor or benches. No comic buffoon to make the groundlings laugh. Coleridge.

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 (Zoöl.), an Indian bat (Scotophilus ornatus), c…

Ribaldry; buffoonery; a ribald story. [Obs.] Piers Plowman. Chaucer.

A merry-andrew; a buffoon. Milton.