harlequinade

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a comic theatrical entertainment featuring Harlequin and other stock characters, especially the concluding section of a traditional British pantomime

   The children begged to stay until the chase and transformations of the harlequinade.

2. 2
   noun

   a comical, fantastical, or rapidly changing display or sequence of events

   The masquerade became a noisy harlequinade of costumes, jokes, and sudden entrances.

Borrowed from French arlequinade, formed from Arlequin, 'Harlequin,' + -ade. In British theater it came to name the comic transformation scene and chase centered on Harlequin and Clown near the end of a pantomime, then broadened to any fantastical comic display.

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