travesty

English edit

Etymology edit

From French travesti (“disguised, burlesqued”), past participle of travestir (“to disguise”), borrowed from Italian travestire (“to dress up, disguise”), from tra- (“across”) +‎ vestire (“to dress”), from Latin vestiō (“to clothe, dress”), from Proto-Italic *westis (“clothing”), from Proto-Indo-European *wéstis (“dressing”) from verbal root *wes- (“to dress, clothe”); cognate to English wear. Doublet of transvest.

Pronunciation edit

enPR: trăvʹĭs-tē, trăvʹəs-tē, IPA^(key): /ˈtɹæv.ɪs.ti/, /ˈtɹæv.əs.ti/
Audio (US) (file)
Hyphenation: trav‧es‧ty

Noun edit

travesty (plural travesties)

An absurd or grotesque misrepresentation.
- 1845, Thomas De Quincey, William Godwin:
  The second edition is not a recast, but absolutely a travesty of the first.
- 2022 January 12, Dr. Joseph Brennan, “Castles: ruined and redeemed by rail”, in RAIL, number 948, page 56:
  In 1844, objection was raised to the Furness Railway's Dalton & Barrow line, when it was revealed that the line would pass directly through Furness Abbey. A re-route was achieved, with the line skirting the abbey ruins instead - although many continued to see the intrusion as a travesty against antiquity and the scenic beauty of the site.
A parody or stylistic imitation.
(derogatory) A grossly inferior imitation.
A battlefield trial is a travesty of justice.
(colloquial, proscribed) An appalling version of something.
- 2018 February 10, Phil McNulty, “Tottenham Hotspur 1 - 0 Arsenal”, in BBC‎^[1]:
  Spurs survived the scare - and such was their domination after the break that it would have been a travesty had Arsenal escaped Wembley, hosting a Premier League record attendance of 83,222, with a draw.

Synonyms edit

Antonyms edit

veracity

Related terms edit

Related terms

Translations edit

An absurd or grotesque misrepresentation

Bulgarian: изопачаване (bg) n (izopačavane)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 拙劣的模仿 (zhuōliède mófǎng, literally “clumsy imitation”)
Czech: travestie f
Faroese: avbronglan f, avskepling f, keipumynd f
Finnish: irvikuva (fi)
German: Zerrbild (de) n
Hindi: विडंबना (hi) f (viḍambanā)
Hungarian: megcsúfolás (hu), karikatúra (hu)
Italian: farsa (it)
Norwegian: karikatur m, parodi (no) m, komedie (no) m, farse m

A parody or stylistic imitation.

Bulgarian: пародия (bg) f (parodija)
Dutch: travestie (nl) f
Faroese: herming f, keipuleikur m
German: Farce (de) f, lächerliche Karikatur f, Travestie (de) f
Hungarian: paródia (hu)
Polish: trawestacja f

A grossly inferior imitation.

German: armselige Karikatur f

Verb edit

travesty (third-person singular simple present travesties, present participle travestying, simple past and past participle travestied)

(transitive) To make a travesty of; to parody.

Derived terms edit

travestier