Word.ws English Dictionary

antic

/ˈæn.tɪk/

antic adjective: playful, funny, absurd. Also the obsolete form of antique.

Adjective

antic (comparative more antic, superlative most antic)

  1. Playful, funny, absurd.
    • My men like Satyres grazing on the lawnes,
      Shall with their Goate feete daunce an antick hay,1594, Christopher Marlow[e], The Troublesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England: […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press] for Henry Bell, […], published 1622, →OCLC...
    • In recounting the story of Lenny and Eunice in his antic, supercaffeinated prose, Mr. Shteyngart gives us his most powerful and heartfelt novel yet — a novel that performs the delightful feat of mashing up an apocalyptic satire with a genuine supersad true love story.2010 July 26, Michiko Kakutani, “Love Found Amid Ruins of Empire”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
  2. Grotesque, incongruous.
    • The amusement park environment of seaside resorts such as Venice and the antic eclecticism of Greene & Greene's pre-Craftsman work all preceded the establishment of the movie colony in Hollywood.2004, John Chase, Glitter Stucco and Dumpster Diving: Reflections on Building Production in the Vernacular city, page 58
  3. (archaic) Grotesque, bizarre
    • Fetch me my Rapier Boy, what dares the ſlaue / Come hither, couer'd with an antique face, / To fleere and ſcorne at our Solemnitie?c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    • […] we all three enter'd the Gate of the Palace between two Rows of Guards, armed and dreſſed after a very antick manner, and ſomething in their Countenances that made my Fleſh creep with a Horror I cannot expreſs.1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Leaves Lagado, Arrives at Maldonada. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […]...

Noun (1)

antic (plural antics)

  1. (obsolete) A grotesque representation of a figure; a gargoyle.
  2. A caricature.
  3. (in plural, often) A ludicrous gesture or act; ridiculous behaviour; caper.
    • I'm fed up with your constant antics in class. Please behave yourself!
    • Two sets of manners, could the youth put on; / And, fraught with antics as the Indian bird / That writhes and chatters in her wiry cage, / Was graceful, when it pleased him, smooth and still / As the mute Swan that floats adown the stream, […]c. 1806–1809 (date written), William Wordsworth, “Book the Sixth. The Church-yard among the Mountains.”, in The Excursion, being a Portion of The Recluse, a Poem, London: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees...
  4. A grotesque performer or clown, buffoon.
    • The Grave-maker, like the professional fools and Falstaff, and like Hamlet himself, is an antic, a grotesque, one who demonstrates to men how foolish and1978, Walter C. Foreman, The Music of the Close: The Final Scenes of Shakespeare’s Tragedies, page 90

Verb

antic (third-person singular simple present antics, present participle anticking, simple past and past participle anticked)

  1. (intransitive) To perform antics, to caper.
    • Jerry no more than cocked a contemptuous quizzical eye at the mainsail anticking above him. He knew already the empty windiness of its threats, but he was careful of the mainsheet blocks, and walked around the traveller instead of over it.1917 April, Jack London, chapter IV, in Jerry of the Islands, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, page 54
  2. (obsolete) To make a fool of, to cause to look ridiculous.
    • Gentle lords, let's part; / You see we have burnt our cheeks: strong Enobarb / Is weaker than the wine; and mine own tongue / Splits what it speaks: the wild disguise hath almost / Antick'd us all.c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
    • Whether one's surroundings were anticked up or not, one often felt one was living in another century at Roque.1964, Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts
  3. (rare, transitive) To perform (an action) as an antic; to mimic ridiculously.
    • She unfastened her dress, her arms arched thin and high, her shadow anticking her movements.1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Vintage, published 1993, page 70

Noun (2)

antic (plural antics)

  1. (animation) A pose, often exaggerated, in anticipation of an action; for example, a brief squat before jumping

Also used as

antic is also the obsolete form of antique.

Examples of antic in a sentence

  • […]a fourth would fondly kiss and paw his companions, and sneer in their faces, with a countenance more antic than any in a Dutch droll.1865, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “Stage-coach Views”, in [Sophia Thoreau; William Ellery Channing], editors, Cape Cod, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor...
  • The woman opened the cover now and then, whereupon the kitten would put out its head, and indulge in playful antics.1894 December – 1895 November, Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], published...
  • I've 'ad about enough of you and your antics.1907, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “On Goat Island”, in The War in the Air: […], London: George Bell and Sons, published 1908, →OCLC, § 7...
  • Toad ceased his frivolous antics at once.1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC:

All 40 example sentences with antic

Forms of antic

Adjective
comparativemore antic
superlativemost antic
alternative form (obsolete)antick
alternative form (obsolete)anticke
Noun
pluralantics
Verb
third-person singular presentantics
present participleanticking
past participleanticked
pastanticked

Origin of antic

Probably from Italian antico (“ancient”), used to describe ancient wall paintings from classical times, from Latin antiquus (“venerable”). See also Italian grottesco (“grotesque”). Doublet of antique.

From anticipation.

Words formed from antic

Words that rhyme with antic

1 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about antic

What does antic mean?
Antic means playful, funny, absurd.
How do you use antic in a sentence?
[…]a fourth would fondly kiss and paw his companions, and sneer in their faces, with a countenance more antic than any in a Dutch droll.
What part of speech is antic?
Antic can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce antic?
Antic is pronounced /ˈæn.tɪk/.

Words near antic in the dictionary

  1. antibusing
  2. antibussing
  3. antibutyrylcholinesterasic
  4. antibutyrylcholinestrasic
  5. antibuyout
  6. antic
  7. anticable
  8. anticachectic
  9. anticacochymic
  10. anticaker
  11. anticakers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: antic (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “antic.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/antic. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.