farce

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A motion picture or play featuring this style of humor.

   The farce that we saw last night had us laughing and shaking our heads at the same time.

2. 2
   noun

   A situation abounding with ludicrous incidents.

   The first month of labor negotiations was a farce.

3. 3
   noun

   A ridiculous or empty show.

   The United States, he declared, was "a farce controlled by dirty, hook-nosed, circumcised Jew bastards."

4. 4
   verb

   To stuff with forcemeat or other food items.

   The lunch […] consisted […] of […] lobster mayonnaise, cold game sausages, an immense veal and ham pie farced with eggs, truffles, and numberless delicious flavours; besides kickshaws, creams and sweetmeats.

5. 5
   verb

   To fill full; to stuff.

   The first principles of religion should not be farced with school points and private tenets.

6. 6
   verb

   To make fat.

   [I]f thou would’ſt farce thy leane Ribs with it [pork] too, they would not (like ragged Lathes) rub out ſo many Dublets as they do: […]

7. 7
   verb

   To swell out; to render pompous.

   farcing his letter with fustian

8. 8
   noun

   a comedy characterized by broad satire and improbable situations

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French farce (“farce (style of humor); stuffing”) (in the latter sense, via Middle English fars, farsse), from Old French farse, from Medieval Latin farsa, from the feminine perfect passive participle of Latin farciō (“to stuff”). The theatre sense alludes to the pleasant and varied character of certain stuffed food items. Doublet of farse.