BUFFOON

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does buffoon mean? 

• BUFFOON (noun)
  The noun BUFFOON has 2 senses:

1. a rude or vulgar fool

2. a person who amuses others by ridiculous behavior

  Familiarity information: BUFFOON used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BUFFOON (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A rude or vulgar fool

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

buffoon; clown

Hypernyms ("buffoon" is a kind of...):

fool; muggins; sap; saphead; tomfool (a person who lacks good judgment)

Instance hyponyms:

Pantaloon (a buffoon in modern pantomimes; the butt of jokes)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A person who amuses others by ridiculous behavior

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

buffoon; clown; goof; goofball; merry andrew

Hypernyms ("buffoon" is a kind of...):

comedian; comic (a professional performer who tells jokes and performs comical acts)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "buffoon"):

harlequin (a clown or buffoon (after the Harlequin character in the commedia dell'arte))

fool; jester; motley fool (a professional clown employed to entertain a king or nobleman in the Middle Ages)

whiteface (a clown whose face is covered with white make-up)

zany (a buffoon in one of the old comedies; imitates others for ludicrous effect)

Instance hyponyms:

Emmett Kelly; Kelly; Weary Willie (United States circus clown (1898-1979))

 Context examples 

I had no occasion of bribing, flattering, or pimping, to procure the favour of any great man, or of his minion; I wanted no fence against fraud or oppression: here was neither physician to destroy my body, nor lawyer to ruin my fortune; no informer to watch my words and actions, or forge accusations against me for hire: here were no gibers, censurers, backbiters, pickpockets, highwaymen, housebreakers, attorneys, bawds, buffoons, gamesters, politicians, wits, splenetics, tedious talkers, controvertists, ravishers, murderers, robbers, virtuosos; no leaders, or followers, of party and faction; no encouragers to vice, by seducement or examples; no dungeon, axes, gibbets, whipping-posts, or pillories; no cheating shopkeepers or mechanics; no pride, vanity, or affectation; no fops, bullies, drunkards, strolling whores, or poxes; no ranting, lewd, expensive wives; no stupid, proud pedants; no importunate, overbearing, quarrelsome, noisy, roaring, empty, conceited, swearing companions; no scoundrels raised from the dust upon the merit of their vices, or nobility thrown into it on account of their virtues; no lords, fiddlers, judges, or dancing-masters.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

For having strictly examined all the persons of greatest name in the courts of princes, for a hundred years past, I found how the world had been misled by prostitute writers, to ascribe the greatest exploits in war, to cowards; the wisest counsel, to fools; sincerity, to flatterers; Roman virtue, to betrayers of their country; piety, to atheists; chastity, to sodomites; truth, to informers: how many innocent and excellent persons had been condemned to death or banishment by the practising of great ministers upon the corruption of judges, and the malice of factions: how many villains had been exalted to the highest places of trust, power, dignity, and profit: how great a share in the motions and events of courts, councils, and senates might be challenged by bawds, whores, pimps, parasites, and buffoons.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)