AllWords.com Home

English Dictionary - With Multi-Lingual Search

  
Definitions
harlequin Twit Definition of harlequin Share Definition of harlequin on Facebook Digg:Definition of harlequin! stumble Definition of harlequin Bookmark Definition of harlequin on Delicious submit Definition of harlequin to reddit Bookmark Definition of harlequin
noun 
  1. a pantomime clown, typically dressed in checkered clothes
    • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
    • :... were certainly the worst and dullest company into which an audience was ever introduced; and (which was a secret known to few) were actually intended so to be, in order to contrast the comic part of the entertainment, and to display the tricks of to the better advantage.
adjective 
  1. brightly coloured, especially in a pattern like that of a harlequin clown's clothes
Etymology: from Middle Dutch hellekijn, meaning little hell,then in French hellequin and in Italian Arlecchino, the name of a popular servant character in commedia dell'arte plays.

     Source Definition of harlequin
  

 Find:
  Words Starting With:
  Words Ending With:
  Words Containing:
  Words That Match:

 
 Translate Into:
  
Dutch   French   German
  
Italian   Spanish
    Show results per page.

Google
 

Browse the Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

 
  

   
Dictionary content provided from Wiktionary.org under the GNU Free Documentation License
Allwords Copyright 1998-2009 Allsites LLC. All rights reserved.