Satire
['sætaɪə] or ['sætaɪɚ]
Definition
(a.) A composition, generally poetical, holding up vice or folly to reprobation; a keen or severe exposure of what in public or private morals deserves rebuke; an invective poem; as, the Satires of Juvenal.
(a.) Keeness and severity of remark; caustic exposure to reprobation; trenchant wit; sarcasm.
Checked by Gregory
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. Ridicule, sarcasm, invective, irony, phillipic, diatribe, fling, squib, lampoon, pasquinade, cutting remark.
Edited by Arnold
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Invective, sarcasm, burlesque, lampoon, pasquinade, irony, ridicule
ANT:Eulogy, panegyric, laudation
Editor: Shanna
Definition
n. a literary composition orig. in verse essentially a criticism of man and his works whom it holds up either to ridicule or scorn—its chief instruments irony sarcasm invective wit and humour: an invective poem: severity of remark denunciation: ridicule.—adjs. Satir′ic -al pertaining to or conveying satire: sarcastic: abusive.—adv. Satir′ically.—n. Satir′icalness the state or quality of being satirical.—v.t. Sat′irīse to make the object of satire: to censure severely.—n. Sat′irist a writer of satire.
Edited by Alexander
Unserious Contents or Definition
n. An obsolete kind of literary composition in which the vices and follies of the author's enemies were expounded with imperfect tenderness. In this country satire never had more than a sickly and uncertain existence for the soul of it is wit wherein we are dolefully deficient the humor that we mistake for it like all humor being tolerant and sympathetic. Moreover although Americans are 'endowed by their Creator ' with abundant vice and folly it is not generally known that these are reprehensible qualities wherefore the satirist is popularly regarded as a sour-spirited knave and his ever victim's outcry for codefendants evokes a national assent.
Checker: Peggy
Examples
- He always saw the joke of any satire against himself. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- He found a pleasure in setting up Blandois as the type of elegance, and making him a satire upon others who piqued themselves on personal graces. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- But Loerke pulled himself together, rose, quivering, looking full at Gerald, his body weak and furtive, but his eyes demoniacal with satire. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- And as to roaring myself red and that kind of thing--these men never understand what is good satire. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- And so on, with a sting of satire in every fold of the florid description. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- The satire on existing governments is heightened by the simple and apparently incidental manner in which the last remark is introduced. Plato. The Republic.
- Satire, you know, should be true up to a certain point. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- This proviso might have sounded rather satirically in Will's ear if he had been in a mood to care about such satire. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- This makes a concealed satire less disagreeable; but still this depends on the same principle. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- And why is it contrary, unless it be more shocking than any delicate satire? David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- It seemed a grim satire to accuse such brutes as these of taking things by force of arms. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- This is an amusement to sharpen the intellect; it has a sting--it has what we call satire, and wit without indecency. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- In its venerable one coat lay a certain vein of satire on human vanity in clothes. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- Perhaps in Vanity Fair there are no better satires than letters. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- I had not expected him to be, and was not surprised myself; or my observation of similar practical satires would have been but scanty. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
Checker: Polly