Lloyd Rose
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When Renaissance Italians began exploring the ancient Roman ruins around them, they discovered fantastic mural paintings that they called grottesca (which means "grotesques," a name given to the paintings because they were found in caves, or grotte). Because they were so old, the murals were also called antichi, or "ancient things." English speakers adopted antichi, modifying it to antike or anticke, and eventually any behavior or dress reminiscent of the kind depicted in the Roman murals became known as an antic. Within 20 years of its earliest recorded uses as a noun, antic began appearing as an English adjective. Originally, it meant "grotesque" or "bizarre" (a sense now considered archaic), but today it means "playful, funny, or absurd" and the noun means "an often wildly playful or funny act."
Synonyms
Examples of antic in a Sentence
Clayton Davis, Variety, 26 Apr. 2024
Kanye West), his former employer, for daring to publicly denounce his White Lives Matter-era antics.
—Jon Caramanica, New York Times, 26 Apr. 2024
Justin Herbert’s aerial antics have become quite familiar.
—Jeff Miller, Los Angeles Times, 23 Apr. 2024
The tortuous production history — the fits and starts, antics and disasters — was followed avidly by the press at the time, and not just the motion picture trade press, but mainstream newspapers and the emerging ecosystem of television entertainment shows feeding off the Hollywood host.
—Thomas Doherty, The Hollywood Reporter, 22 Apr. 2024
Drew brings this wild but intimate vision to life by way of outrageous antics, lacerating dialogue, and a blend of live action with phantasmagorically janky effects and animation.
—The New Yorker, 12 Apr. 2024
Harry Litman: Trump’s antics didn’t stop his New York hush money trial.
—Ryan Fonseca, Los Angeles Times, 16 Apr. 2024
According to reports from Shan Shariff of 105.3 The Fan, certain members of the Dallas Cowboys organization have grown tired of the antics of star pass rusher Micah Parsons.
—Lawrence Dow, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 10 Apr. 2024
He also shouldn’t be penalized for the weird All-Star game antics.
—Corey Masisak, The Denver Post, 6 Apr. 2024
Michael Schulman, The New Yorker, 15 Apr. 2024
Molina's path combines the beautiful and comic threads; his antic dance with a pumpkin apparently as heavy as a medicine ball would have Harold Lloyd nodding in appreciation.
—Jim Higgins, Journal Sentinel, 5 Apr. 2024
That febrile, antic movie mines another of Allen’s longtime motifs: the plot point of hiding evidence.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 3 Apr. 2024
Perhaps the most notorious Lopez antic is Robin’s rivalry with NBA mascots, which often ends with him and the mascot in a fake physical altercation.
—Skyler Trepel, Peoplemag, 27 Mar. 2024
Qualley and Viswanathan’s performances are pitched high; the former does a lot of antic monologuing.
—David Sims, The Atlantic, 21 Feb. 2024
An antic Pierre Cardin (Eliott Margueron), who would work on Dior’s first collection, also makes an appearance.
—Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times, 14 Feb. 2024
That the story presented me with an apparent dead end gave rise to its antic propulsion.
—Willing Davidson, The New Yorker, 29 Jan. 2024
This makes Benji the antic bomb-thrower and wild card, which is his comfort zone.
—Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 21 Jan. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'antic.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Antic.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/antic. Accessed 2 May. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
antic
1 of 2 noun
antic
2 of 2 adjective
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