COMIC (comics)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: comics   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does comic mean? 

• COMIC (noun)
  The noun COMIC has 1 sense:

1. a professional performer who tells jokes and performs comical acts

  Familiarity information: COMIC used as a noun is very rare.

• COMIC (adjective)
  The adjective COMIC has 2 senses:

1. arousing or provoking laughter

2. of or relating to or characteristic of comedy

  Familiarity information: COMIC used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COMIC (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A professional performer who tells jokes and performs comical acts

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

comedian; comic

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

performer; performing artist (an entertainer who performs a dramatic or musical work for an audience)

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

comedienne (a female comedian)

gagman; standup comedian (a comedian who uses gags)

joker; jokester (a person who enjoys telling or playing jokes)

top banana (the leading comedian in a burlesque show)

buffoon; clown; goof; goofball; merry andrew (a person who amuses others by ridiculous behavior)

Instance hyponyms:

Dudley Moore; Dudley Stuart John Moore; Moore (English actor and comedian who appeared on television and in films (born in 1935))

Herbert Marx; Marx; Zeppo (United States comedian; one of four brothers who made motion pictures together (1901-1979))

Arthur Marx; Harpo; Marx (United States comedian; one of four brothers who made motion pictures together (1893-1964))

Chico; Leonard Marx; Marx (United States comedian; one of four brothers who made motion pictures together (1891-1961))

Groucho; Julius Marx; Marx (United States comedian; one of four brothers who made motion pictures together (1890-1977))

Martin; Steve Martin (United States actor and comedian (born in 1945))

Arthur Stanley Jefferson Laurel; Laurel; Stan Laurel (United States slapstick comedian (born in England) who played the scatterbrained and often tearful member of the Laurel and Hardy duo who made many films (1890-1965))

Harry Lauder; Lauder; Sir Harry MacLennan Lauder (Scottish ballad singer and music hall comedian (1870-1950))

Buster Keaton; Joseph Francis Keaton; Keaton (United States comedian and actor in silent films noted for his acrobatic skills and deadpan face (1895-1966))

Bob Hope; Hope; Leslie Townes Hope (United States comedian (born in England) who appeared in films with Bing Crosby (1903-2003))

Alfred Hawthorne; Benny Hill; Hill (risque English comedian (1925-1992))

Hardy; Oliver Hardy (United States slapstick comedian who played the pompous and overbearing member of the Laurel and Hardy duo who made many films (1892-1957))

Fields; W. C. Fields; William Claude Dukenfield (United States comedian and film actor (1880-1946))

Durante; Jimmy Durante (United States comedian remembered for his large nose and hoarse voice (1893-1980))

Chaplin; Charlie Chaplin; Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (English comedian and film maker; portrayed a downtrodden little man in baggy pants and bowler hat (1889-1977))

Caesar; Sid Caesar; Sidney Caesar (United States comedian who pioneered comedy television shows (born 1922))

Burns; George Burns; Nathan Birnbaum (United States comedian and film actor (1896-1996))

Benjamin Kubelsky; Benny; Jack Benny (United States comedian known for his timeing and delivery and self-effacing humor (1894-1974))

Derivation:

comic (arousing or provoking laughter)

• COMIC (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Arousing or provoking laughter

Synonyms:

amusing; comic; comical; funny; laughable; mirthful; risible

Context example:

risible courtroom antics

Similar:

humorous; humourous (full of or characterized by humor)

Derivation:

comedy (a comic incident or series of incidents)

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

Sense 2

Meaning:

Of or relating to or characteristic of comedy

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Context example:

comic hero

Domain category:

drama (the literary genre of works intended for the theater)

Pertainym:

comedy (light and humorous drama with a happy ending)

Derivation:

comedy (light and humorous drama with a happy ending)

 Context examples 

A quick temper, sharp tongue, and restless spirit were always getting her into scrapes, and her life was a series of ups and downs, which were both comic and pathetic.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

But to save me I can't see any difference between writing jokes or comic verse and running a type-writer, taking dictation, or keeping sets of books.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Holmes shrugged his shoulders with a glance of comic resignation towards the Colonel, and the talk drifted away into less dangerous channels.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They say he is like Fielding: they talk of his wit, humour, comic powers.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Let it but be comic, I condition for nothing more.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

But even if the burial service was comic, what about poor Art and his trouble?

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

A cold supper was ready upon the table, and when his needs were satisfied and his pipe alight he was ready to take that half comic and wholly philosophic view which was natural to him when his affairs were going awry.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He was a sober, steady-looking young man of retiring manners, with a comic head of hair, and eyes that were rather wide open; and he got into an obscure corner so soon, that I had some difficulty in making him out.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

To see him walking like a comic opera Sultan, with this badge of authority in his hand, his black beard bristling in front of him, his toes pointing at each step, and a train of wide-eyed Indian girls behind him, clad in their slender drapery of bark cloth, is one of the most grotesque of all the pictures which I will carry back with me.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)