picaresque
Syllables: pi·car·esque/pɪkəˈɹɛsk/
picaresque adjective: of or pertaining to adventurers or rogues.
Adjective
picaresque (comparative more picaresque, superlative most picaresque)
- Of or pertaining to adventurers or rogues.
- The blue and white of the Murano background and the frankly picaresque tramp seem to form strange bed-fellows for the supper-party below stairs into which any gentleman's gentleman of the siècle de Dr. [Samuel] Johnson might have walked at any moment. [Describing an adaptation of Carlo Goldoni's...1919 July 9, “Without Prejudice”, in Bruce Ingram, editor, The Sketch, volume CVII, number 1380, London: Illustrated London News & Sketch, →OCLC, page 54, column 2
- Synonyms:
- roguish
- Characteristic of a genre of Spanish satiric novel dealing with the adventures of a roguish hero.
- A mere piece of roguery told in the abstract, without the proper picaresque ornaments, its manifold sinuosities and dexterities, has no interest for the reader; it may recommend the executor of it to the administration of a cat-o-nine-tails, or to an honourable post in the gallies: but there is no...1822, “Art. I.—Primera, y Segunda Parte de Guzman de Alfarache, por Matheo Aleman, Criado del Rey nuestro Senor, Natural, y Vezino de Sevilla. Madrid, 1723. 4to. The Rogue; or, The Life of Guzman de...
- Spain became celebrated about the end of this century for her novels in the picaresque style, of which Lazarillo de Tormes is the oldest extant specimen.1839, Henry Hallam, “Section III. On Works of Fiction.”, in Introduction to the Literature of Europe, in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries, volume II, London: John Murray, […]...
Noun
picaresque (plural picaresques)
- A picaresque novel.
- Du sublime au ridicule il n'y a qu'un pas [From the sublime to the ridiculous there is only one step]; and that step in Spain was taken by Diego Hurtado de Mendoza (already dealt with in his higher walk), the originator of the Picaresque, or low rogue's march novels, of which his Lazarillo de...1850 September, “Art. I.—History of Spanish Literature. By George Ticknor. 3 vols. 8vo. London, 1849. [book review]”, in John Taylor Coleridge, editor, The Quarterly Review, volume LXXXVII, number...
- [T]he word picaro, which is almost synonymous with rogue, [...] has given a name to a whole series of novels in Spain called "Picaresques," the heroes of which are adventurers.1856, Louis de Loménie, chapter XXVII, in Henry S. Edwards, transl., Beaumarchais and His Times. Sketches of French Society in the Eighteenth Century from Unpublished Documents. [...] In Four...
picaresque meaning in Bengali, Arabic and Persian
picaresque in Bengali
- সাহসী ও রোমাঞ্চকর
picaresque in Arabic
- picaresque novel
- رواية شطارية
picaresque in Persian
- picaresque novel
- رندنامه
Examples of picaresque in a sentence
- Opening in France just before the Revolution and concluding just after the attack on the Tuileries, [Rafael] Sabatini's novel deftly combines historical romance, picaresque novel and revenge tragedy.2009 November 1, Neil McDonald, “Scaramouche and the Swashbuckler”, in Quadrant, volume LIII, number 11 (number 461 overall), Sydney...
- In picaresques, the protagonist usually acts as narrator to provide coherence and unity to the genre's inherent structural weakness—its episodic plot.1992, Kathryn Zabelle Derounian-Stodola, “The New England Frontier and the Picaresque in Sarah Kemble Knight’s Journal”, in Kathryn Zabelle...
Synonyms of picaresque
Forms of picaresque
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more picaresque |
| superlative | most picaresque |
| Noun | |
| plural | picaresques |
Origin of picaresque
From picaro (“adventurer, rogue”) + -esque (suffix meaning ‘in the style or manner of’ forming adjectives), modelled after Spanish picaresco (“in the style or manner of a picaro; picaresque”), from pícaro (“rogue”) + -esco (suffix forming adjectives indicating a relation). Compare French picaresque (attested later than the English word), Italian picaresco, Portuguese picaresco.
Words formed from picaresque
Questions about picaresque
- What does picaresque mean?
- Picaresque means of or pertaining to adventurers or rogues.
- What is picaresque in Bengali?
- Picaresque in Bengali is সাহসী ও রোমাঞ্চকর. See Picaresque meaning in Bengali.
- How do you use picaresque in a sentence?
- Opening in France just before the Revolution and concluding just after the attack on the Tuileries, [Rafael] Sabatini's novel deftly combines historical romance, picaresque novel and revenge tragedy.
- What part of speech is picaresque?
- Picaresque can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce picaresque?
- Picaresque is pronounced /pɪkəˈɹɛsk/ (UK).
Words near picaresque in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: picaresque (page history and authors); picaresque (Bengali Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-picaresque.wav, En-us-picaresque.oga.
Cite this entry: “picaresque.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/picaresque. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.